The detachment's anchorage was at Cape Kahina, and it took just over a quarter of an hour for the fleet to arrive in a straight line to join the battle.

However, Mei Xuan, the captain of the Longshuo who commanded the fleet, did not intend to rush over like this, he led the fleet to the north first, and only cut in from above after making a large circle in the open sea.

The CXAM radar on the USS San Francisco and the USS West Virginia detected the anomaly early on, but the U.S. radar crews ignored the fact that the two destroyers on both sides were engaged in the battle to confuse their judgment.

Before the naval battle began, the destroyer Binh Thuan was on patrol duty eight kilometers north of the landing fleet's anchorage, and after the US assault fleet was exposed, she bravely approached and kept firing.

The U.S. assault fleet apparently didn't want to be delayed by this small destroyer, so it only dispatched the USS Hughes (DD-410) to intercept it.

While the two fleets were fighting fiercely, the two destroyers were fighting alone from the battlefield, as if they were fighting one-on-one.

The two invisibly erased the radar superiority of the US military, and the detachment maneuvered to the north of the battlefield, about 20 kilometers from the coastline.

In this process, the Longshuo selected the nearest Arizona for several minutes of continuous calculation, and the gunnery Lin Xunzhen personally went out and commanded the main gun to fire a full salvo at 2:45.

The distance of about eleven kilometers was considered relatively close, and during daytime engagements, artillery battles between battleships often began when they were more than twenty kilometers apart.

Nine 400mm armor-piercing shells flew out at a speed of 770m/s, and the 982kg armor-piercing projectiles could pose a lethal threat to any part of the aging Pennsylvania-class battleships at this distance.

One of them was an underwater projectile that damaged a hydraulic pump compartment below the waterline on the right side of the hull; The other shot pierced through the main armor belt, burrowed into the ammunition depot under the B turret and exploded.

Except for these two shells, all seven missed closely.

A large number of 356mm high-explosive shells were detonated, which in turn caused the propellant pack in another compartment to deflagrate. A horrific chain of explosions shattered the Arizona's hull, and the deck and hull above the armored box structure were completely torn open.

The armor box was like a can that had been violently pried open, thick black smoke and blazing flames erupted into the sky under the influence of the shock wave, and dense metal fragments and severed arms were thrown in all directions!

The explosion completely disintegrated the structure of the forward hull, and the A and B turrets, which had no support below, immediately fell downward, and the bridge and foremast also began to collapse, slamming into the sea......

"God help me! Lao Tzu wants to give Lin Xunzhen that a credit! Mei Xuan was extremely excited, he clenched his fists, gritted his teeth and said: "There is no enemy and no self, the time has come to fight hard and kung fu, don't even think about escaping!" ”

With the arrival of the detachment, the situation on the battlefield was reversed in an instant.

"My God! The condition of the USS Arizona looks terrible! ”

"I see the Arizona leaning ......"

"Sir! A large number of Chinese ships are approaching from the north! ”

The bridge of the San Francisco was filled with panic and surprise.

"Their reinforcements must have been waiting nearby, maybe we have become rabbits as the Chinese proverb goes." Raymond Spruance moved to the platform outside the bridge and took a closer look at the situation to the north, "No matter what, we must do our best to destroy the supplies on the beach. ”

The West Virginia hurriedly turned its guns and went to deal with the Longshuo, which had just killed the enemy in one shot; The California also hastily stopped its bombardment of the Ming beachhead targets and opened fire on the Zhanghe instead.

The lightning strike detachment in the detachment did not hesitate to charge, and the Jinghai-class super destroyer Changle and the three Penglai-class destroyers rushed straight to the chaotic battlefield.

In standard assault tactics, the Jinghai-class as the lead ship needs to suppress the enemy's destroyers or cruisers and cover the Penglai-class to break through the enemy line.

"It's finally time for this day, night raid? Don't let them succeed! Kill it! Let's see who can help whom! Hu Shaosheng, the captain of the Nanxi, was excited, and his hands holding the binoculars trembled slightly.

Nanxi is the 15th ship of the Penglai class, built by Dagu Shipyard and delivered in the 38th year of Chang.

At the captain's command, her turbine began to run overloaded, with superheated steam up to 400 degrees pouring into the turbine, and a large gear reducer drove two copper propellers with a diameter of more than three meters to rotate rapidly.

The surging power of 102,000 horsepower under the overload condition allowed the destroyer to gallop forward at a top speed of 45 knots, like an arrow off the string.

The other two Penglai-class ships were doing the same, firing anti-explosive and barren-fire bombs at the USS California and San Francisco to maximize the self-defense firepower of enemy ships.

The previous regulations of the Ming Navy required destroyers to give priority to firing white phosphorus shells at enemy ships during a surprise attack, and white phosphorus would emit a large amount of smoke while spontaneously combusting, which could theoretically greatly interfere with the normal operation of enemy ships.

For a long time, the naval units were trained in this way, but later many experiments and exercises showed that the effect of this method of play was not as good as theoretically, so there was no hard requirement since the 37th year of Zhichang, but many veterans and generals still retain this habit today.

In the course of the charge, the super destroyer Changle, which was responsible for covering, was attacked by the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco and several destroyers, and shells continued to explode on the hull and superstructure.

In just three minutes, the Changle was hit by dozens of bullets, and the biggest damage was a 203mm normal shell, which directly blew up the No. 2 turret of the Changle and caused the No. 1 turret to malfunction.

The U.S. warships fired desperately in an attempt to intercept the Ming destroyers that were scrambling to pounce.

At 2:51, one of the Penglai-class destroyers, the Nayama, was hit by multiple shells from the USS Philadelphia (CL-41) light cruiser, and was attacked by the Chicago's high-level dual-purpose guns as it maneuvered to evade.

The ship was badly damaged, and the chart room was also damaged by a 127mm shell, and the captain and several officers were seriously injured, so they had to rush out of torpedoes to the target four kilometers away in advance, and then turn to withdraw from the battle.

The South Stream was quite lucky, and the other three ships shared the vast majority of the firepower for her, and she assaulted all the way to a distance of more than 3,000 meters from the California with almost no damage.

It was only then that more and more shells beckoned to the South Stream.

The captain of the ship, Hu Shaosheng, raised his head to the side and said loudly: "Check the torpedo!" Check the torpedo! ”

Then, the order from the captain was heard on the radio, and the smoke mineers on the middle deck carried out a final inspection of the torpedo in a bumpy situation.

The Penglai class is a high-speed lightning strike ship in nature, and the torpedoes used are very special - 480mm medium torpedoes, because the standard 512mm ship torpedoes are too heavy, and the upper limit can only be achieved in five combinations.

Even more terrifying was her launcher, a seven-pack torpedo launcher arranged in an isosceles trapezoidal pattern, with a special steel protective casing to protect against bullets or fragments.

A terrifying heavy launcher like this, each Penglai-class has 4 on board. In order to balance the weight and avoid overweight, the Penglai-class artillery configuration was reduced to four single-mounted 128mm naval guns (the weak lightweight fully enclosed turret could only withstand bullets and fragments), and the anti-aircraft guns and depth charges were also significantly reduced.

At 2:53, a whizzing 127mm usually bullet exploded under the bridge of the South Stream, and the No. 2 turret was reimbursed on the spot, and the shock wave and high-speed fragments also shattered the bridge windshield.

"Ganlin's mother's!" Hu Shaosheng's face was cut, his whole face was covered with blood, and he shouted sharply: "Order!" Left rudder, turn fifteen degrees! Ready to do it, the smoke and thunder officer made his own decision and sent the dog to the bottom of the sea! ”

Half a minute later, the Yan Lei Officer with the telescope said lightly: "The lightning strike is shot to 175, the depth is three meters, and the No. 1 and No. 2 are ready." ”

The South Stream was less than two kilometers away from the California, and the latter's starboard guns, both large and small, were firing like crazy.

The enemy's shells fell into the sea nearby, and the splashes were so sprayed that the water was all over the body; Or the high-speed rush just a few meters overhead, the piercing sound of breaking the air makes people's ears buzz.

Someone eagerly pulled his throat and asked, "Sir, don't you fight yet?!" ”

"It's now, No. 1, No. 2, let's go!"

At 2:54, with the order of the smoke and thunder officer, the Nanxi first fired a salvo with the No. 1 and No. 2 launchers, and the compressed air pushed out the torpedoes, and a series of torpedoes fell into the sea with a puff.

More than 30 seconds later, launchers No. 3 and No. 4 also completed a salvo, but one torpedo failed to launch because of a faulty launcher pipe.

At this moment, the sea is particularly lively, and the exchange of fire between the two sides is dizzying, and shells and torpedoes of different calibers shuttle above and below the sea surface.

A total of 27 480mm torpedoes were fired from the first and second rounds of attack on the South Stream, and they headed straight for the California, which was about 1,400 meters apart.

The trajectory of so many torpedoes galloped together dragged out many long white wakes on the sparkling sea, like two huge combs coming from two directions.

"I saw it, I saw it, it was firing torpedoes!"

"Captain! A large number of torpedoes approached from the starboard side! ”

"God, that's too much!"

"Shut up! This is not a movie theater! Right full rudder! Do it now! ”

But this was to no avail, and in the face of a vast number of incoming torpedoes, the largest maneuver evasion could only be called a death struggle.

The Tennessee-class battleship was the first capital ship in the United States to pay attention to underwater protection, and the five-layer bulkhead underwater protection system can withstand the explosion power of 180kg of TNT, which may have been good back then, but it has long been outdated today.

"Knock-knock-knock-"

At 2:55, a series of loud noises resounded in the sky and the sea, and the towering water column rushed up dozens of meters high.

The right side of the California was hit by six torpedoes in a row, at least five of which successfully detonated. From bow to stern, five wide, irregularly shaped holes were torn open, and tons of seawater poured in.

The damage caused by multiple simultaneous mines was too great to be borne by the old battleship, and the captain ordered the left hull to be filled with water to avoid capsizing, and at the same time turned to the shoreline and ran aground.

However, the water ingress was so fast that it was only two minutes before the California was tilting sharply to the right.

She reverted and headed for Haleiwa Beach, a few kilometres away, but it was getting slower and steeper......

In the bridge of the San Francisco, the captain hesitated and said, "Sir, I think we should go, the enemy fleet has suffered a lot of losses, and the supplies on the shore should have been destroyed a lot, and that is enough." ”

"Veto." Raymond Spruance glanced at him and said meaningfully, "If we lose Hawaii, we lose the Pacific Fleet."

Without the loss of Hawaii as a base, then the departure base of the Pacific Fleet will be limited to the west coast, and how much strategic significance is there?

After a while, he ordered in a calm tone: "Let the West Virginia run aground, and the fleet will continue to fight until the sun comes out." ”

The officers were stunned—the commander's order was that the two old battleships, the USS Arizona and the USS California, could run aground if necessary, but the USS West Virginia was not included.

"Any measure that works to protect Oahu is reasonable and feasible, and we have no more options." Raymond Spruance's gaze revealed helplessness and determination.

Upon learning of the order, the captain of the USS West Virginia, Colonel Morwen Benyon, did not look surprised.

He took a deep breath and said, "Left rudder, turn to 170, stranded course." ”

When the battleship was facing land, he bowed his head and said to himself: "Her graveyard should be the ...... of the sea"

At 3:05, the California was already tilting 20 degrees to the right, and the turbines were stopped due to severe water ingress, and the propellers gradually stopped.

The 30,000-ton behemoth glided forward by inertia for some distance, and finally capsized and capsized only a few hundred meters from land.

There are spilled heavy oil and fragments of various items floating on the surface of the sea, as well as dense lifeboats......

The sailors of the South Stream had already cheered a few minutes ago, and now they couldn't laugh anymore, because the super-destroyer Changle not far away had been badly damaged and had lost power and was floating on the sea.

The U.S. destroyer USS Winslow (DD-359) caught fire in multiple places, the second chimney and rear mast were blown off, and she fired the only two remaining torpedoes at the immobile Changle.

Three minutes later, one of the torpedoes hit the middle of the Changle's hull accurately, and the violent explosion nearly cut the battleship in half.

At 3:13, the captain of the Changle gave the order to abandon the ship and evacuate, and the ship sank into the sea a quarter of an hour later......

The ground forces of both sides watched the battle between the two fleets as spectators at the opera house.

Both sides unanimously stopped the exchange of fire, and the infiltration and counter-infiltration at night were not carried out, and the officers and men tacitly enjoyed the magnificent scene in the trenches and foxholes.

A lieutenant of the 501st Airborne Regiment of the U.S. Army wrote in his diary, "I saw the shadow of the warship shooting a bright orange object, the sea was flickering with flames all the time, and a big explosion in the middle made me feel the land tremble, and Sergeant Cyril said it was like a volcanic eruption."

In the headquarters of the 17th Division deep on land, some people involuntarily sighed: "Niang Xipi, this is really a big fight, it's hard enough!" ”

Soon after, Zhou Changfeng and his party arrived, and they had been hiding from the heavy shelling of the American fleet after evacuating the stranded Lu Xun.

One of them, the bespectacled major communications staff officer, scolded and scolded as he walked: "The Americans have made a mistake, and the battleships are rushing to the shore one by one!" This is a bloody game! ”

The circumference is gray-faced, his face is cold, and his eyes are awe-inspiring.

He glanced around and said solemnly: "The situation is not good, I estimate that the enemy will have a big counterattack, so you have to be prepared." Has there been any change in the deployment of the 17th Division? Now shrink your ground! ”

(End of chapter)