"This is a very difficult time to decide, and we may lose one or two valuable ships." Severa said with a somewhat melancholy face.

"But we can win the war, and that's all it takes to know the truth!" Yang Yonglin said mercilessly. Sevela cherishes any warship in the fleet, but Yang Yonglin is more concerned about the outcome of the war! If he fails, the results of years of hard work will be lost. As for how much of the Spanish fleet will be left after the end of this war, whether it will exist in name or not, it has nothing to do with him. After all, his home is not here.

"In the early stages of the engagement, we can have the Cologne help the three ships behind to suppress the New York as well as the two Columbia-class cruisers. This way, they will be less stressed in the later engagements. Seeing Sai Villa's hesitant look, Yang Yonglin said the second suggestion.

"Then we're going to have a lot of pressure to start with." Severa was equally unimpressed by the advice. 2 Dante-class battleships plus 1 armored cruiser HMS King, facing 4 genuine battleships, the pressure is not small!

"Our task is only to suppress the fire of the American battleships, and the final execution will be handed over to the Lightning Strike Fleet." Yang Yonglin said with a smile. Although in his bones he is a loyal supporter of the idea of the supremacy of capital ships, especially in the Sino-Japanese War, after seeing the final three armored cruisers directly turn over, he is even more convinced of this. But now, he had to give the most glorious task to those auxiliary warships, because the strength of the opponent was too strong, and he could not end the battle through a simple main showdown. At this time. Any little bit of force is precious.

"Well, in that case, that's all we have to do." Looking back at the two PISA-class armored cruisers and one light armored cruiser lined up in the back, Sevela said with some heartache.

In the case of the two sides moving opposite each other, the relative speed of the two fleets is as high as 30 knots, and the distance of less than 20KM is only less than half an hour.

The two sides turned almost at the same time, and the side sides covered with guns of various calibers were illuminated, and the thick barrels slowly turned to the enemy 5KM away. In the light of the sun. The black metallic sheen kept jumping. The battle lines of the two sides were not parallel, and this distance was a little farther for most of the artillery. But this did not prevent the commanders of both sides from giving the order to open fire, and their task was to fight in the final decisive battle. Shoot all the shells and wait for victory or death! This is a decisive battle, and both sides will do their best!

With the gun commander's order to fire, the 36 10-inch 40L Armstrong guns and 8 11-inch 40L Krupp guns of the Spanish fleet were the first to roar! The entire sea was suddenly filled with fiery snakes. Hundreds of kilograms of shells flew out of the barrels at a speed of more than 700 meters per second and flew towards the fleet in the distance. A few seconds later, the U.S. fleet 4KM away was surrounded by thick columns of water, a dull roar suddenly came from a distance, a cannonball accurately hit the middle of the Indiana's hull, the heavy cannonball directly tore through the upper armor belt, which was only 4 inches, and rushed into the internal compartment, accompanied by the sound of explosion. A puff of black smoke mixed with debris and flames erupted from the breach.

"Fire!" Originally, Majifen planned to get closer and then fire, after all, the American battleships did not have more ammunition than the opponent's 10-inch guns, but the opponent's preemptive blow made him have to consider the problem of morale, sometimes, firing itself is a way to overcome fear, when seeing a shell constantly fired from the muzzle, people will put all their energy into the battle, and only in this way, they will release the fear in their hearts.

After a brief silence. All of the U.S. Navy's 13-inch and 8-inch guns also rained down deadly bullets on the Spanish fleet. For a time, the sea between the two sides was completely covered with smoke and fire. Accompanied by bursts of tremors, the roar of nearly 100 artillery pieces resounded throughout the battlefield. From time to time, battleships were hit, and huge flames erupted from the ship's side. Fragments and blood were scattered in all directions with a massive explosion. The sailors, under the command of the officers, struggled to extinguish the flames where they were hit. Mend damaged hulls and rescue wounded comrades. But as the two sides got closer, more and more hits made it all in vain. All the places exposed on the surface of the hull without armor protection are forbidden areas for the Grim Reaper, and even if they leak outside for a few seconds, they may be swept into a blood gourd by shrapnel flying from nowhere! …,

According to the pre-arranged tactics, the two Dante-class battleships were tasked with suppressing the USS Iowa, USS Marseilles, and USS Indiana of the US Navy. The USS Kings took on one battleship alone, while the three PISA-class armored cruisers and the USS Manila concentrated on attacking the three cruisers at the tail of the U.S. Navy.

"At the beginning of the war, the two Dante-class battleships and the King's were under great pressure. On average, each U.S. Navy battleship could only be dealt with with only six 10-inch guns and four 6-inch guns. In the face of the four 13-inch main guns and four 8-inch guns of the Iowa and Indiana classes, as well as a large number of secondary guns, both the Dante class and the King were under great pressure. We are at a disadvantage in firepower. —Excerpt from Severa's autobiography "The Battle of the Caribbean".

At the beginning of the battle, the situation of the forward fleet was indeed worse, but in the case of a long distance between the two sides, the 8-inch guns were not able to damage enough, and the 13-inch guns hit low, although the scene looked relatively bad, but on the whole, the battle situation was quite stable, but this greatly increased the pressure on the American cruisers, 1 8500-ton armored cruiser and 2 7000-ton protective cruisers were besieged by the opponent's 3 10,000-ton armored cruisers and 1 5000-ton light armored cruiser, the situation can be imagined.

In less than 3 minutes, the 10-inch 40L main gun of the PISA-class armored cruiser hit the New York at least 3 times! The first armor-piercing projectile passed diagonally through the bow of the New York and, after penetrating the hull plate, exploded in the anchor chamber, blowing half of the bow off. Two armor-piercing shells then hit the middle of the New York's hull at the same time, blowing an 8-inch gun and several 6-pounder guns into pieces, while the 6-inch rapid-fire gun and the 12-pounder gun hit countless times, and in just a few minutes, the New York's engaged side was riddled with holes, and shrapnel opened one hole after another on the side of the hull.

The situation with the next two Columbia-class dome cruisers was also very bad. The accurate, high-speed firing of the Okando and Manila gave the two huge, but poorly armed ships powerless to fight back. In just 2 minutes, a 10-inch shell was sent into the rear waterline of the Columbia, and the huge explosion directly opened a large hole in the hull with a diameter of 1.2 meters! A large amount of seawater poured in, entering the hull through the torn gap in the dome, and the entire stern of the hull was heavily tilted to the right. And the situation of the other ship is also very bad, several 8-inch shells and 6-inch shells turned the entire deck into a sea of fire, except for a few places with armor protection, the whole battleship has become a hell of fire, two poor dome armor battleships are like candles in the wind, there is a possibility of sinking at any time, as long as a 10-inch shell can hit in the right place, then the death sentence of these two battleships can be pronounced!

This did not last long, and the Americans soon discovered the problem, and the battleship Oregon, which was at the tail of the line, drew two 13-inch guns and two 8-inch guns, and several 6-pounder guns aimed at the Cologne, which was pouring fire on the New York. With the support of the Oregon, the Cologne was soon surrounded by large and small jets of water, and Lady Luck did not make the Americans wait long, and in less than 10 minutes, the Americans' main guns finally made the first hit!

A 13-inch main gun shell weighing 512.6KG smashed on the middle turret of the Cologne at a speed of more than 500 meters per second, and the entire battleship suddenly burst out a large number of fragments and smoke from the middle of the hull, although the hardened armor with a thickness of 10 inches successfully blocked the heavy blow, but under the huge impact, the non-hardened layer behind the hardened armor was shattered by the impact that came, and a large number of shrapnel continued to eject inside the closed turret. Most of the gunners were knocked down by shrapnel from the backplate effect before they could react. Not only the loss of personnel, but the gun on the left side of the middle turret was completely damaged, and the long barrel was pulled down. Thankfully, because there is a partition between the two guns, the gun on the right can still be used. …,

After the heavy attack, the Cologne had to aim its main fire at the Oregon, which greatly reduced the pressure on the New York. "We still have the advantage. Without Cologne, we would have been able to destroy those three obsolete cruisers. Looking at the Cologne, which was in the first aid, Jericho tried to calm his emotions, but at this moment, Jericho was taken aback by a move by the Americans.

Just when the Cologne was forced to turn its guns against the Oregon, the New York, which was under much less pressure, suddenly turned one and a half compass points to the left with the two battleships behind it! And rushed to the Princess Maria at top speed. They braved the dense artillery fire of the other side, and did not care at all about the picric acid high-explosive shells that hit from time to time, they just sprinted, gradually picked up speed, and rushed over at a speed of at least 19 knots or more!

"The other side wants to be struck by lightning, and the ships are ready to evade." The radio signal quickly transmitted Jericho's order to the two battleships behind, and 2 minutes later, 3 American cruisers fired 10 torpedoes one after another! Although these torpedoes equipped with gyroscopes were much stronger than their predecessors in the First Sino-Japanese Period, the effective range of the torpedoes powered by compressed air was inevitably not far, and when the opponent was on guard, not a single shot hit.

But no hit does not mean that it has no impact on the situation of the battle, and Jericho soon discovers that the other party's purpose is not to attack himself with torpedoes, but to disrupt the formation of the fleet!

The last battle of the Spanish-American War, let's support it more, although some readers may say that the author dragged the plot, but the author subjectively just wants everyone to have a more comprehensive understanding of the navy at that time, I hope you will bear with me. (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )