The Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy was indeed defeated, and the defeat was not ordinary miserable. This huge defeat shocked everyone, and even Accardo, who was far away in Germany, was speechless for a moment when he learned that the Japanese had once again played a fiasco like Midway. He thought that he had changed the course of the war, and that even if the Japanese Navy was defeated by the American Navy, there would not have been such a fiasco of instant blood loss.

But he really didn't expect that the Japanese, who were more willing to give it a go in their bones, resolutely chose the madness of stud in the face of adversity. Almost all the guys that the entire Combined Fleet could handle were thrown by the Japanese Navy into the waters of the Bismarck Islands, and the largest naval battle in human history was fought with the US Navy.

At first, the assault fleet led by Keno Kurita attacked the US Navy frantically under the cover of the Japanese Navy's carrier-based aircraft, exposing its position, and then the US carrier-based planes crushed the Japanese Zero fighters to save the defeat and control air supremacy, and then the Japanese fleet was divided into three in an attempt to encircle the US fleet -- all of this seems to be still playing out according to Koga Mineichi's script.

However, the situation took a turn for the worse, and the U.S. Navy desperately attacked the Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier fleet, and as a result, it completed the feat of sinking seven warships of the Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier fleet before sunset. The aircraft carrier foundation that the Japanese had managed to get together was eaten clean by the US Navy in one go.

Nagumo Tadashi, who had the most experience in aircraft carrier operations under Yamamoto 56, died in the first battle, and almost all the air forces that the Japanese Navy had painstakingly accumulated were wiped out...... By the time this naval battle was fought, Japan had lost all its pants, and even if the US Navy fleet was completely annihilated, it seemed that it could only be regarded as a remnant of life.

However, Koga Fengichi, who had lost madly, chose an even more frantic desperate gamble, and he ordered Kurita Keno's assault fleet and the interception fleet led by himself to continue the attack, in an attempt to take advantage of the gap when the American aircraft carrier fleet could not counterattack at night, complete the counterattack and continue to survive. He felt that there was no problem for the Japanese Navy to overwhelm the US Navy in its ability to fight at night, and that the current war situation was still favorable to Japan.

As a result, the fleets of Kurita Keno and Koga Mine began to flank the main US fleet on the left and right, and a decisive battle between the largest night naval guns and torpedoes in history began.

The essential difference from the German Navy is that the US Navy does not only have destroyers and aircraft carriers, and does not have much ability to counterattack at night -- on the contrary, the US Navy has a large number of destroyers, cruisers, and battleships, and the aircraft carrier fleet has a relatively complete all-round protection capability. So when the Japanese fleet came over, what the Americans had to do was not to wait for death, but to start a heroic counterattack.

Under the cover of night, the artillery roared in the waters of the Bismarck Islands, and both sides used radar as a means of guidance to kick off the artillery fire at a long distance. The Americans, relying on the superiority of the radar's high accuracy, were the first to attack at the longest distances, but because of the lag in the level of gunner training, not a single shell hit their opponent in the first few rounds of shooting.

On the other hand, after the Japanese Navy opened fire on the attack, there was no shadow of the Americans on their radar screen, so Kurita Keno and Koga Mine could only grit their teeth and continue to advance, hoping to hold on until the time when their fleet discovered the American fleet. And their persistence was finally achieved, and the Japanese radar later discovered its enemy.

So the Japanese navy immediately began to return fire, and the two fleets began an unusually loud artillery battle. However, because of the problem of luck, until half past eight in the night, the two sides were still thundering and raining, and they were not able to make any decent progress. At 8:34 a.m., the balance of the goddess of victory seemed to be tilted in favor of the Japanese, and the Kongo, the leading captain of the fleet led by Keno Kurita, finally hit an American battleship, and the light of fire became the best means of indicating an attack, so the Japanese fleet took the lead in concentrating its firepower and sank the American battleship that was the first to be shot.

However, Kurita's fleet deviated from the flank of the main force of the U.S. fleet because of the pursuit of the American battleship and the nearby detachment of U.S. Navy destroyers supporting the battleship. This also laid the groundwork for the subsequent decline and escape of the United States.

Koga Mineichi's attack fleet was biting Halsey's fleet at this time, and the battleship Yamato did not miss its naval battle this time because the combined fleet was weakening. The 460 mm cannon also showed its full power in the night battle, sending the American cruiser that hit it directly to the bottom of the sea.

This naval battle, which took place at night, fully demonstrated the ferocious combat effectiveness of the Japanese Navy, and the Japanese Navy indeed possessed a superior level of training in terms of traditional naval forces. If it were not for the fact that the number of naval aviation and the speed of replenishment were inferior to the United States, the price to be paid by the Americans in the Pacific theater would have been even heavier.

However, as the fleets of both sides gradually approached, the destroyers of the US Navy stepped forward and exchanged their own sacrifices for the fleet's chance to escape. They rushed in front of the Japanese naval fleet and fired torpedoes to force the Japanese navy to focus on these small ships like mad dogs.

"The Japanese are the ancestors of the Americans rather than torpedoes and bayonets!" I don't know who said this in the confusion, so Kurita's detachment made the fateful second wrong decision with a slight deviation from course: they estimated the speed of the American fleet's sailing, and then fired all the spear torpedoes that could be shot at an angle.

Unfortunately, they were wrong in their estimate of the speed of the U.S. fleet, or Kurita greatly underestimated the U.S. fleet's determination to flee for its life. With Admiral Halsey's fleet in the background, Spruance led the aircraft carrier fleet to drive the highest speed that could be driven regardless of the formation, and even discarded three escort carriers in order to maintain speed.

So the spear torpedoes fired by the Japanese hit the scattered ships of the lagging American fleet, including 11 warships, including three escort carriers. However, the remaining off-target torpedoes, due to angle problems, rushed to the interception fleet of Koga Mineichi, which was aggressively chasing the main force of the American fleet.

As a result, dozens of Japanese spear torpedoes rushed into the midst of the Japanese naval fleet's own men, blocking the Japanese naval fleet's path to continue pursuing the American navy. As soon as Koga Mine was hit on the battleship Nagato on the outskirts of the fleet, he turned pale and forgot to give orders, and it was not until another cruiser was sunk that the Japanese fleet began to panic to avoid these deadly threats.

So when midnight came, the U.S. fleet easily broke away from contact with the Japanese fleet and began to maneuver northward to avoid the pursuit of the Japanese navy. The Japanese Navy's Kurita Keno Assault Fleet was rejoicing in its earth-shattering victory, and the Koga Mine Interception Fleet was doing all kinds of serpentine maneuvers because it was "ambushed by a U.S. Navy submarine" and was unable to pursue the enemy in front at full speed.

Before dawn, the Japanese Navy had to leave the battlefield and retreat towards the island of New Guinea, Kurita Keno was full of ambition to report his feat of inflicting heavy damage on the American fleet, and Koga Mineichi gloomily cut his stomach in the commander's cabin of the battleship Yamato, and escaped the guilt of his defeat with his death. It's a pity that he committed suicide too early, and closed his eyes before the base camp investigated the truth about the torpedo attack.

It is no wonder that he committed suicide by seppuku, for who would have thought that it was his own torpedoes that had passed through the enemy's fleet and attacked his own people? That is, because the range of spear torpedoes is really amazing, even if a torpedo is fired in another country, it may not have such a long range.

When the Japanese fleet returned to New Guinea, the Nagato, which was the first to be shot by Kogamine's fleet, and the battleship Mutsu, which was later hit by spear torpedoes, were both seriously wounded and moved slowly, and were sunk by the counterattacking American carrier-based aircraft. When the news reached the base camp, the Japanese Navy was completely devastated. The two battleships were damaged by the Americans in a night battle and eventually sank, and the fleet lost most of its half -- an intolerable defeat for the arrogant Japanese navy.

Although Kurita Keno performed remarkably in the entire naval battle and achieved the result of sinking most of the American warships, he fell into passivity in the subsequent investigation of accidental torpedo damage, in fact, he was really unlucky, the dud bomb of the spear torpedo that had not been encountered in a hundred years actually hit the battleship Yamato, and the Yamato returned to Kure Harbor with this torpedo, and the truth surfaced.

Kurita Keno is really not complaining about his death, this torpedo turned out to be fired by the destroyer Shiyu in his fleet, and the number on the torpedo body made the investigation go very smoothly, if Kurita Keno knew about the stalk of the snow wind and rain in the future, maybe he would not have died with this kind of friendly army like a beast.

In short, the battle off the Bismarck Islands caused the Japanese naval fleet to die in an instant again. The powerful Combined Fleet is dwindling, and the Japanese Navy can no longer find a commander who can provoke the girder. Therefore, when Yamashita learned that the 232nd Division was rushing to the aid of Malaysia, Yamamoto Isoroku met the "begging peace" envoy sent by the navy's top brass in his office.

"Marshal Yamamoto 56! Your Majesty is instructed to continue to command the Combined Fleet and continue to serve His Majesty the Emperor...... Our navy has now reached the most dangerous moment, please put aside your prejudices and ...... for the Japanese Empire," the man bowed in front of Yamamoto and said sincerely.

"I, Yamamoto Fifty-six, am destined to be in the navy in this life. The former commander of the Combined Fleet also bent down and interrupted the other party's words: "Please rest assured that Your Majesty the Emperor, Yamamoto will definitely live and die with the Combined Fleet!"