After suffering a big loss, the U.S. warship formation learned wisely, and used a mixture of battleships and cruisers to cover the entire ship group tightly, and after licking the wounds, it slowly approached in the direction of Hawaii Island.

It was not until dusk that we arrived in the waters near Hawaii Island, five hours later than scheduled.

During this period, Brigadier General He Jiaben led the ship formation to test several more times.

The opponent's defense is tight, there is no opportunity to take advantage of it, and this little force in hand does not dare to rush to press, can only harass from a distance, but does not dare to get too close, and always maintains a safe distance of 15 kilometers.

For such a dog skin plaster, Major General Schroeder was helpless.

He simply sent the battleships "Chilshaji" and "Kentucky" to lead a small formation of ships to confront them, and he himself led a total of four battleships "Alabama", "Illinois", "Nebraska" and "Maine" along the perimeter of the coast and began to bombard the batteries on the west side of Hawaii Island.

The fort on the west side of Hawaii Island was equipped with two 305-mm shore guns, four 203-mm shore guns, and 10 152-mm shore guns.

In battle

The shore artillery damaged the battleship "Maine" and fell into flames, and the shore artillery positions were beaten to pieces, and finally fell silent.

16 305-mm naval guns against two 305-mm shore guns, the final result is self-evident, the US ship formation finally pulled out the west battery at the cost of a battleship with minor injuries.

In the wee hours of the morning

More than 300 US officers and men of a battalion forcibly landed and occupied the western battery, and the Star-Spangled Banner was erected high on the battery, symbolizing the partial success of the landing operation.

On this day, the people were tired, and the US warship formation did not attack continuously at night, but took advantage of the precious gap between battles to repair and facilitate the resumption of the battle tomorrow.

The Pearl Harbor Cruiser Fleet, which had always been patrolling the periphery, took advantage of the cover of night to send two destroyer formations to attack and harass the enemy, firing several rounds of artillery every hour or two, and then using high speed to escape and disappear into the endless night.

This night, no one had a good rest.

Early the next morning

As soon as the sky turned white, that is, at about 6:00 a.m., the US battleships "Alabama", "Illinois", "Nebraska", "Chilsage" and "Kentucky", a total of five battleships, began to shell the southern battery along the perimeter of the bay, leaving only the lightly wounded battleship "Maine" to lead a group of cruisers to guard against a sneak attack.

The attack after dawn was smoother, and the resistance of the south battery was not resolute, and after an hour and a half, it was occupied by the forced-landing American troops, thus clearing the harbor of Hawaii Harbor of the greatest threat to the defenders, and the beautiful bay opened the door to the invaders.

A large number of freighters swarmed in, and the battered protective cruiser "St. Louis" also staggered into the harbor, and at this moment one side of the ship was already submerged in the water, and it had no choice but to run aground in the bay to avoid the tragic fate of sinking.

After dawn

Accurate casualty statistics also came out, and Rear Admiral Schroeder looked at the numbers in his hands, and his heart was dripping blood.

The army suffered 867 casualties, 116 missing, most of them were losses from troop carriers, only one person was killed and 17 wounded in the attack on the two batteries, the dead soldier fell during the climb and broke his neck, and the missing soldier probably sank to the bottom of the sea along with the ship carrying the soldiers!

Fortunately, the rescue was timely, otherwise the loss would have been even greater.

One troop carrier, two freighters sank, 62 crew members were killed and wounded, of which 26 were wounded, and the rest were rescued.

In the ship formation, the cruiser "St. Louis" was seriously damaged, the cruiser "Milwaukee" was slightly damaged, and the battleship "Maine" was slightly damaged, 327 officers and men were killed, 455 were wounded, and 17 were missing.

The biggest result of the battle was to consume thousands of large-caliber artillery ammunition to overcome two batteries, kill more than 230 enemies, and the rest fled.

on the pier

A large number of American soldiers landed on the shore, and there was a mess on the dock, the officers were shouting loudly about their soldiers, the soldiers were bumping around like flies, and many people gathered on the dock to take out the small wine jug in their arms and drink two sips, and Meimei smoked and enjoyed it.

The situation did not improve until the sun rose high, and sporadic gunfire was heard in the nearby city, and the vanguard sent by the American army was intercepted and forced to stop and wait for the follow-up troops to come up.

Some U.S. soldiers with guns rushed into nearby houses, beating up residents, looting property, and even chasing women with strange smiles.

Rear Admiral Schroeder stood on the side of the ship with gloomy eyes, and the battleship "Maine" received a 305-mm armor-piercing bullet, which smashed against the heavily armored command tower, and smashed it on a 152-mm secondary gun, which was immediately beaten into a state of scrap metal.

Fortunately, the damage to the hull of the ship was not large, but the casualties were not small, and the moment it hit the command tower, a huge shock caused a total of 17 people killed and injured, and a secondary artillery crew was reimbursed, and 7 people were killed.

The huge vibration caused the high-pressure steam pipe near the secondary gun to burst, and the red-hot high-pressure steam ejected out, causing more than a dozen casualties again. Due to insufficient steam pressure, the battleship "Maine" lost its speed of three knots, reaching a maximum of 15 knots.

The most unfortunate thing was that the captain, deputy captain, helmsman and chief navigator of the ship were all killed, and the rest were injured in varying degrees of severity, four officers were seriously injured and unconscious, and the lightest of the injuries were all deaf in both ears, and blood flowed from their ears that were shattered, and they were obviously unable to complete the combat mission below.

Rear Admiral Schroeder could only transfer the commanding officer of the cruiser "St. Louis" to deal with it, and the cruiser had to be abandoned for the time being, waiting until his hands were free.

It's a busy time in the harbor at the moment

Some of the 38 cargo ships were unloading, some were anchored in the harbor, and the warships were swimming outside the harbor, vigilantly searching the sea to prevent a surprise attack by the Pearl Harbor cruiser.

Although this escort mission cannot be said to be complete, it basically achieved its goal, and Rear Admiral Schroeder thought that he had done a decent job, and there was nothing to blame, and as for the unfortunate troop transport ship that was hit and sunk, it could only be blamed on bad luck.

God testifies;

Who would have believed that a heavy cruiser racing at high speed at 20 knots per hour could hit a troop carrier 14.5 kilometers away with shells fired at undulating seas?

The two squadrons of ships outflanked by the enemy on the left and right fired a total of nearly 200 shells at high speed, and only this one shot hit a near miss, which caused serious damage.

Now reviewing the last ferocious scissors kill of the Pearl Harbor Cruiser, Rear Admiral Schroeder was deeply admired, but he could only shrug his shoulders and express regret.

It's like on the basketball court, although the defense is very tight, but the super player relies on his extraordinary ability to pull out the gap in the high-speed dribble breakthrough and make an emergency stop...... Step-back jumper......

The net fluttered with a "bang".

Hollow into the basket

The gap of less than 10 minutes created by the other party with his extraordinary ability has already stabbed the chrysanthemum of the American fleet, and at this moment Rear Admiral Schroeder only wants to sing; Chrysanthemums are remnant, and the ground is full of wounds......

In addition, Rear Admiral Schroeder very much wanted to ask the Citigroup ship design department, what the hell is the protective cruiser with a displacement of almost 10,000 tons with 14 152-mm guns?

The heavy cruiser "Suzaku" of the same displacement was armed with 3 twin 305-mm guns and 16 152-mm guns, and the firepower of both sides was not at all of the same level.

And in Rear Admiral Schroeder's fleet, there is a protective cruiser "Atlanta" with a displacement of 3189 tons, armed with 2 203-mm main guns and 6 152-mm secondary guns.

This really can't blame Rear Admiral Schroeder for questioning his soul, but because Citigroup's ship design is completely wild, relying on his wealth and willfulness, many classes of cruisers and battleships are only built one or two, purely experimental in nature.

The construction of battleships and cruisers of the same specifications in large quantities has been a matter of the past two or three years, resulting in a wasted of time and resources, a lot of money has been spent, and the fleet has not received ships with proven combat effectiveness.

For example, the battleship "Chil Shaji" class, two battleships of this class were built, namely "Chil Shaji" and "Kentucky".

The Chilshaji is the only Citi battleship not named after a state, and its name is inherited from one of the Northern Army's most successful sailing ships of the same name in the Civil War, although her sister ship, the Kentucky, reverts to the traditional way of naming the state.

When Citi designed this class of ships, they had a big brain, stacking the double-barreled 203mm secondary turret on top of the 330mm main turret and rotating it with the main turret.

The advantage is that the weight is saved, the disadvantage is that the 203-mm secondary gun cannot rotate freely, and the ballistics of the two sides are different, the firing range is different, and they affect each other when shelling, this novel design caused a lot of controversy, and it was the Citigroup Navy that paid the price.

These two battleships are now in the ship formation of Rear Admiral Schroeder, in a total of 9 cruisers of 5 classes, ranging from 2100 tons to 9760 tons, Rear Admiral Schroeder is too lazy to complain, that is, the dilemma he is currently facing.

In fact, the Citigroup Admiralty had an even greater headache.

There is no shortage of cruisers in the Citigroup Navy, the total number of active cruisers reaches 47, but the vast majority of cruisers with large tonnage and strong combat effectiveness are in the Atlantic Fleet, and they do not go on a global voyage with the Great White Fleet.

In the Pacific Fleet, active cruisers are generally old, old, dilapidated and small.

With the arrival of the Great White Fleet, San Francisco concentrated 19 of the 22 battleships in service with Citigroup, and all 18 of the 16 new battleships built after 1900. Battleships of the cruiser class were seriously missing.

This is all due to President Roosevelt's great success, which broke down the naval power into two parts.

The consequences of this situation are extremely serious, judging by the predicament faced by Major General Schroeder; He didn't have the right forces at his hands to deal with the Pearl Harbor Cruiser.

It is generally understood that a cruiser is the most appropriate to deal with a cruiser, but it is a pity that the three "St. Louis"-class protective cruisers with a displacement of nearly 10,000 tons in his hands are all carrying 152-mm small guns, one is seriously wounded, one is lightly injured, and the other is intact, and the combat effectiveness has been half gone.

There are also cruisers equipped with cannons, the 3189-ton displacement "Atlanta" protective cruiser is equipped with 2 203-mm guns and 6 152-mm guns, but such a small bean will be blown up in minutes in front of the opponent's heavy cruisers.

However, the speed of the US battleship at 18 knots was too slow to keep up with the heavy cruiser "Suzaku", which reached a maximum speed of 22 knots, so they could only look at the ocean and sigh.

Rear Admiral Schroeder had no choice but to temporarily consolidate the occupation of Hawaii Island, and the convoy mission was barely completed, and all that remained was to blockade Pearl Harbor and then cover the land of the Army troops on Oahu.

He had already sent a fast cruiser to Oahu to reconnoiter and find a suitable landing site.

Oahu is a hard nail, Pearl Harbor's topography is surrounded by mountains, like a chicken's paw sticking into it, only a narrow and long entrance can enter, and the inner harbor is large and deep, and several fjords are divided, which is extremely secretive.

The defenders built strong fortress batteries on the peaks on both sides, more than 20 large-caliber shore guns of various kinds, and even six 356-mm large-caliber shore guns, which had the ability to tear through the battleship's solid defenses and hit the soul with one shot.

With such a powerful coastal defense, no navy would dare to test it with an expensive battlefleet, not even the wealthy Citigroup.

The best thing to do was to find a landing site elsewhere on Oahu and use the Army to land by raft and capture the entire island from the flank, which was the task of the Army, and the Citigroup Navy was only responsible for blocking the port.

After determining that the Pearl Harbor cruiser fleet would return to port for resupply, Schroeder would lead a fleet of ships to block the entrance to Pearl Harbor in order to achieve the goal of limiting the enemy.

"What time is it, Lieutenant."

"Report sir, it's 8:30 in 7 minutes."

"Well, it's a good day again!"

"Yes, sir."

Major General Schroeder took out his pipe, and the lieutenant next to him took out a match and lit it with a very eye-catching eye, took a puff of heavy smoke from Meimei, and said with satisfaction; "Thank you, Lieutenant, you're a great boy."

At this moment, a terrible battle siren suddenly sounded from the ships on the sea, breaking the silence of the early morning.

The confidential officer rushed out of the telegraph room in a panic, had forgotten the military salute, and hurriedly handed the telegram in his hand to Major General Schroeder and said; "Report to the sir, the forward alert ships have spotted the enemy's large fleet coming."

"Watts?"

Admiral Schroeder put his pipe in his mouth, then took the telegram and looked at it, and was immediately stunned, and the pipe in his mouth also fell.

The telegram said;

It was discovered that the enemy's large ship group, led by 4 battleships, with about 30 cruiser-class large and medium-sized ships, was rushing towards Hawaii Island, 23 kilometers away.

Seeing this telegram, Rear Admiral Schroeder was like falling into an ice cellar, and he looked blankly at the many cargo ships anchored in Hawaii Harbor, and then at the warships anchored outside the harbor, and his heart instantly understood.

Finished bird, hit the plan.

"Enemy Attack ......"

With a heart-rending shout, Major General Schroeder ran briskly towards the command tower, shouting as he ran; "All personnel are urgently preparing for battle, pulling anchors and setting sail, ready to meet the ......"

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