On the west coast of the United States, in the port of Seattle, the newest battleship "Idaho" of the United States Navy.

In the commander's business class below the main deck, Admiral Benson, commander of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet, who had to be white, took the telegram presented by the adjutant, read it for a moment, immediately stood up, and excitedly ordered the adjutant: "Quickly, inform General Robinson and the commanders of the detachments to come to me for a meeting as soon as possible." ”

An hour later, Vice Admiral Will Robinson, commander of the Alaska Corps, Vice Admiral Schroeder, commander of the 2nd Battleship Squadron, and five commanders of two cruiser detachments and three destroyer fleets, walked into the cramped cabin, which was crowded with desks, filing cabinets, small blackboards, and improvised steel-framed chairs.

When everyone arrived, Benson stood up and announced, "The President orders us to immediately launch the Alaskan campaign to expel the Japanese devils from our land." ”

In the small cabin, after a very brief silence, there was a sudden burst of loud applause that was intense, excited, cheerful, and even mixed with whistles.

Benson smiled and nodded, and handed the message he had just received to everyone to read, and the message was quickly transmitted between a pair of white gloves, in the scrappy chatter, laughter, and applause, and within a few minutes, it was back in Benson's hands.

"In this way, the main forces of the East Asian Combined Fleet should have sailed to the Indian Ocean, and the British will have a headache." The shrewd and capable Lieutenant General Schroeder shrugged and commented.

Lieutenant General Robinson spread his hands and said: "The jewel in the crown of the British Empire, the John Bulls will not give up easily, let them have a good time with the Chinese monkeys, and we have the opportunity to clean up those more lowly Japanese monkeys." ”

"Okay, now is not the time to care about the animals, let's first understand the enemies we will face." Benson waved his hand and explained to the war zone map that had already been hung on the blackboard.

"According to information that is consistently inaccurate. By the end of August, the Japanese army and navy had three main positions in Alaska — Unalasca Island in the eastern Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island west of the Gulf of Alaska, and the Kenai Peninsula north of the Gulf of Alaska. The main supply bases are Holland Harbor on Unarasca Island, Kodiak Harbor on Kodiak Island, and Graham Harbor on the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula. ”

"The total strength of the enemy's garrisons at the above three positions is estimated to be more than 10,000 men, of which more than 5,000 are stationed on Kodiak Island and more than 3,000 on Unaralaca Island. Kenai Peninsula, 2,000 to 3,000 people. ”

"The naval fleet that supported these garrisons was the so-called North Sea Fleet, based in northern Japan and the ports of Kamchatka, and usually consisted of four to six armored cruisers, four to eight protective cruisers, and a number of destroyers. In an extraordinary case, it may be supported by four or six pre-dreadnought battleships. ”

"If the East Asian Combined Fleet is indeed attacking the Indian Ocean with all its might, it should be impossible to deploy more troops to this secondary front. Even if the enemy really strengthened four or six old battleships, it would not be enough to counter the reinforcement of our fleet with the Idaho. Lieutenant General Schroeder confidently analyzed.

Indeed, as the No. 3 New Mexico-class ship, which was only completed after the start of the war, with a standard displacement of 32,000 tons, a maximum speed of 21 knots, and four triple 14-inch (356 mm) main guns and a main armor belt up to 13.5 inches (343 mm), the so-called "super dreadnought" battleship "Idaho", which is more than 10,000 tons and has a maximum speed of 178 knots, Equipped with 2 or 3 twin 12-inch (305 mm) guns and the main armor belt is not more than 12 inches thick. Even if it's one against four, or even one against six. I'm afraid it's all about chopping melons and vegetables, no problem.

What's more, Schroeder's 2nd Battleship Squadron originally had 8 former dreadnought battleships: three ships were no more than ** years old "Connecticut" class. Two ships of the "Virginia" class, which are about ten years old, and three "Maine" classes, which were completed before 1904. The Connecticut and Virginia classes were equipped with two main guns, with one twin 12-inch gun at the bow and one at the end, and a total of four twin 8-inch (203 mm) secondary guns on both sides, and the Connecticut class rarely used 12 7-inch (178 mm) rapid-fire guns as secondary guns to suppress light ships - instead of the 6-inch (152 mm) rapid-fire guns that were customary for previous warships of all classes.

With these eight old battleships alone, Schroeder was sure to tie with the six Chinese "Ruixiang" class battleships of the same age, each equipped with three twin 12-inch guns.

In addition to the above 9 battleships, the main strength of the 2nd Fleet, the Alaska Raiders Fleet, which was assembled in Seattle at this time, also included: 2 new "Chester" class reconnaissance cruisers of the 1st Cruiser Detachment. The 2nd cruiser detachment landed the large armored cruiser "Fort Pitts" and 2 large protective cruisers of the "Columbia" class. 8 1 destroyers of the Kashin-class 1,000-ton destroyer, 8 Type 700 destroyers of the 2nd and 3rd destroyer detachments. and three converted water engine carriers of the "Jupiter", "Denver", and "Des Moines" detachments.

The 26 transport ships scheduled to carry Vice Admiral Robinson's Alaska Regiment were already ready to go, and the Canadian Navy light cruisers "Vancouver" and "Quebec" were also ready to join the raider fleet at any time in the middle of the way.

Everything is ready, just waiting for the order.

At the urging of Schroeder and others, who were eager to be ashamed, Admiral Benson finally threw away the telegram and ordered behind his back: "Now I order, at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, the whole fleet will leave the port, and the task is to sail to Kodiak Island and launch a landing operation!" ”

On the other corner of the Pacific Ocean, Port Vila, the British New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), outside the port, the sky is clear, the water is light, but inside the port is black smoke.

On one of the battleships, the medium-sized, ordinary-looking commander of the Royal Navy's South West Pacific Fleet, Sir George Bryan, was leaning on the flybridge on one side of the bridge with his beloved pipe in his mouth, inspecting his famous battleships, spitting thick soot, and setting sail for a new land...... Climb ^ book ^ net, this chapter is first published by "".