"Command room! Command room! This is the first observation post, and there is no shadow of the American warship!" a Japanese Navy soldier lowered his binoculars in his hand at the lookout post on the mast. The waters around the Marshall Islands have been warm as spring, and the sea breeze on your face makes you feel very comfortable.

Just as the US Navy was preparing to learn from the advanced combat experience of the German Navy, it installed such high-end gadgets as radars on the Navy's cheap combat ships such as destroyers. The Japanese Navy does not have such a high salary, because the "electric scout" used by the Japanese Navy is almost the size of a truck, which can barely be installed on a heavy cruiser, and a warship like a destroyer is not blessed.

Moreover, this kind of radar is not very easy to use, and the price is very expensive, and Japan has not produced a few good ones, all of which have been booked by battleships and new aircraft carriers, and there is no surplus left for small ships like destroyers.

As a result, when the German Navy destroyers had already enjoyed color radar screens, and when the US Navy had begun to use radar instead of personnel vigilance, the Japanese Navy sailors could only stand on high masts and use binoculars to guard the vast sea surface.

On the bridge of the destroyer, a Japanese captain of the Nakasa destroyer put down the binoculars in his hand and gave the order to his first mate to adjust the course slightly. Since the U.S. Navy gained the initiative on the battlefield, the Japanese Navy's life has deteriorated day by day.

The battle cruisers of the King Kong class were transferred to the mainland to participate in the modification of the radar system, and the combined fleet lost three capital warships for no reason. Because of the lack of sufficient naval aviation, the two aircraft carriers under the Second Air Fleet, the Canglong and the Feilong, were also forced to retreat to Taiwan for reorganization, and the current combined fleet can be said to be unable to reach even half of its peak combat strength.

Marshal Yamamoto went from sitting in the Marshall Islands with his eyes on the Marshall Islands, seeking a decisive battle with the U.S. Navy all the time, to now being trapped in the Marshall Islands, struggling to support himself from fighting the U.S. military. He didn't know what was going on to make the situation he was facing collapse so quickly.

"Keep on guard! The U.S. Navy's fleet has been moving around more and more frequently recently, so we should be careful!" The destroyer's captain is also the commander of a destroyer detachment, and he is in charge of commanding three destroyers to guard the waters and prevent the U.S. Navy from getting too close to the Combined Fleet anchorage in the Marshall Islands.

As he said, the U.S. Navy has indeed frequently come to the door to provoke recently, because the power between the United States and Japan has been close to the balance, Nimitz, Spruance and the fierce general Halsey are not easy people, they judged that the Japanese Navy is not in good shape, so they decisively changed the strategy of shrinking the defense, and prepared to use this time to play a better situation as much as possible.

The war situation in Europe no longer allows for optimism at the top level of the United States, the situation in the Middle East is on the verge of collapse, Turkey and Egypt are flanked by two flanks, and the US forces in the Middle East are miserable.

However, the aid of the Soviet Union did not have any desired effect, and the Soviet Union lost its cities and lost ground on the Soviet-German battlefield, and was defeated again and again, which caused the current US top brass to complain about Roosevelt's war strategy. It is precisely because the United States is a little weak in the battlefield against Germany that the Roosevelt Group hopes to regain their lost self-confidence in the Pacific Theater.

This is also the latest strategy that the United States has come up with -- the Pacific first and then Europe. The central idea of this strategy is to first defeat Japan, which is the real threat to the United States, and then to look back at the gains and losses in the European and Middle Eastern theaters.

The introduction of such a strategy shows that the German army has basically achieved its strategic goal: to dispel the United States' attempts to intervene in Europe and the Middle East with successive victories, and to force the US military to avoid a decisive battle with the German army in an unfavorable area.

However, in fact, the United States did not completely give up on interfering in the Soviet-German war, and based on the comparison of data, the United States provided the Soviet Union with three times more strategic materials at this moment than at the beginning of the Soviet-German war, including more tank sighting systems, more steel raw materials, and more and more advanced machine tools. Quite a few American engineers even went to the Soviet Far East to help the Soviet Union train skilled workers.

In the Far East, the reason why the Soviet Army dared to transfer 30 divisions to the west was also because the United States provided a full 20 divisions of guns and ammunition and helped the Soviet Union to form 20 new American armor divisions in the Far East.

But one thing is undeniable, and that is that the United States has focused its strategic focus on the Pacific, and this shift in strategic focus has indeed paid off handsomely—the U.S. military has regained the initiative in the Pacific theater, and successive victories have given Roosevelt and the clique behind him a respite, and the prospects for war in the United States, at least on the surface, are very good.

"Signal the other two destroyers! tell them we're adjusting course and tell them to keep an eye on what to follow. The captain of the destroyer then added another order. Suddenly, for some reason, his heart began to irritable inexplicably, making his whole person feel uncomfortable.

So he turned his head, looked at the two destroyers on his flank in the distance, and then said to his deputy: "I don't know what the purpose of His Excellency Marshal Yamamoto asked us to frequently patrol this sea area, without carrier-based aircraft and radar, it is impossible for us to find the traces of the Americans first." ”

As if confirming his complaint, and as if it was an explanation of his inexplicable irritability just now, the telephone bell corresponding to the guard post on the mast suddenly exploded. The first mate walked over and grabbed the phone, and the Japanese lookout at the guard post shouted a heart-rending warning: "Straight ahead! Straight ahead! The enemy's warship is very fast! It is approaching our side!"

"What? what the hell is going on?" the Japanese captain asked loudly, frowning.

His first mate hurriedly reported to him what had happened: "Your Excellency Nakasa! The US Navy warship has been discovered! The specific model cannot be judged! Please give a combat order and sound the battle alarm." ”

Because the destroyers of the Japanese Navy are very well trained, as a naval power, Japan has always attached more importance to destroyer tactics, and the oxygen torpedoes developed by the Japanese Navy are very advanced torpedo weapons in World War II, so the Japanese Navy has never suffered any big losses against the destroyers of the US Navy.

In several skirmishes, the Japanese destroyers won more with less, sinking many destroyers of the US Navy. Although he suffered a lot of losses, he never lost. This is also one of the reasons why Yamamoto Isoroku dared to send the destroyer out for reconnaissance.

However, the speed at which the U.S. Navy builds destroyers is much faster than that of Japan, so even if the Japanese Navy outperforms the United States in the contest of destroyers, it cannot withstand such huge consumption, which is also one of the important reasons why Yamamoto Isoroku is depressed.

"Sound the battle alarm! Adjust the speed of the fleet! Close the distance!" As the commander of this reconnaissance fleet, this lieutenant immediately issued a combat order, and there was no need for him to retreat. As a naval commander of the Imperial Japanese Army, he still had the confidence to outperform his American naval counterparts.

As time passed, the U.S. Navy did not have the slightest intention of dodging this time, and the two sides walked in the opposite direction, and the distance was quickly drawn. At this time, the lookout of the Japanese Navy discovered the problem, so he sent back very important information: "Report the bridge! The US Navy is larger, it should be a larger cruiser or a heavy cruiser! Not a destroyer!"

This is worth careful consideration, although the destroyers are sure to win the battle against each other, but if the destroyers are used to fight the cruisers, Nakasa himself thinks that he still lacks the certainty of victory. Not to mention that the other side is not just a cruiser, but a cruiser with several destroyers.

"Signal the other two destroyers and tell them to adjust their course to the left by 30 degrees and be ready to shell and fire torpedoes!" At the same time as he gave the battle order, he also issued an order to report to the Combined Fleet: "Send a telegram to the main fleet! Tell them that we have discovered the American cruiser fleet and are preparing for battle! Let them respond in time and send reinforcements!"

"Hey!" the first mate nodded and hurried to do these things, and just as the first mate was going to get the captain's order, a large-caliber cannonball suddenly landed on the sea near the side of the destroyer, stirring up a huge column of water. The captain was stunned by the scene in front of him, and he didn't know why the American troops had opened fire at a distance of 15 kilometers and fired so accurately.

"Yaga Ya Road! These Yankees cannonballs have eyes?" Nakasa cursed as he looked at the exploding water column on the side with a pale face. What he didn't know was that the U.S. Navy on the other side was also stunned by the miraculous shot he fired, and they were cheering and firing their own even more miraculous second shot.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the 203-mm main gun on the cruiser of the US Navy actually hit the Japanese destroyer with great accuracy with the second shot, and the shell hit the destroyer's forward turret, killing more than half of the Japanese troops on the front turret and bridge in an instant.

"Call the Yukikaze! Call the Yukikaze! We were hit! The captain is killed! Call for help!" On the collapsed bridge, the first mate, whose face was covered in blood, wailed—

Good night, warriors of the Empire!