Chapter 2584 Rush Hour 1
"Is the destroyer fleet finished?" Nimitz said with a complicated mood as he looked at the silent battlefield in the distance.
"Probably." Su Xiong said, looking at the sea in the distance.
"Are we safe now? Where is the Japanese fleet?" Nimitz asked.
"How do I know?" Su Xiong frowned. Continue to use the telescope to observe the sea area where the battle has just ended. At this time, the Japanese fleet did not evacuate, but still turned on the searchlight to search for something on the sea. Seems like looking for other German destroyers? However, the next movements of some Japanese destroyers made Su Xiong feel nervous! These destroyers did not evacuate south or sail towards the core area, but formed a marching formation and rushed towards them! Seeing this scene, Su Xiong's heart trembled violently, and a drop of cold sweat fell from his forehead!
It stands to reason that after the battle, the fleet preparing to evacuate needs to turn off searchlights and all unnecessary light sources. However, the Japanese may have done a little worse in this regard, so they turned off the searchlights for a few minutes that night in Su Xiong. A lot of information is revealed in his eyes!
These destroyers are heading directly northeast, so there is only one reason, and that is, they are following their main fleet! These following destroyers are definitely not conducting reconnaissance. If they were reconnaissance, they should be forming a horizontal formation and developing an arc! And now it's the column! This is obviously a sign of quickly converging with the main fleet!
And if this inference is true, it means that the main force of the Japanese fleet is still following him, and surprisingly, the Japanese's general direction judgment is still correct! So, this is terrible! Su Xiong did not dare to leave at the highest speed directly, because the wake generated by high-speed navigation could easily expose him. Now, with only one destroyer squadron left, Su Xiong did not have much reconnaissance capabilities! He did not know the location of the Japanese fleet and did not dare to act rashly.
"Order, the fleet will turn north to a compass point and increase the speed to 22 knots!" After Su Xiong hesitated for a moment, he decided to temporarily increase the distance, at least to have some sense of security. Unfortunately, when he made this decision, the distance between the two parties was close to the limit of what his eyesight could do!
"I saw them! It's not the battleship itself! It's the wake behind them! Oh my God! Is this the Bavaria-class battleship?" At this time, at a lookout post on the Fuso battleship, a Japanese lookout exclaimed! He was not mistaken. 12 kilometers away, the turning German fleet and the current Japanese fleet were unexpectedly traveling in parallel! And this information immediately spread throughout the entire fleet!
"Immediately notify the seaplane to drop flares over the opponent's warship! The fleet is ready to engage in battle!" When the order was issued, Shigetaro Yoshimatsu's heart was filled with excitement and a little fear! In the past, the power of the German fleet was like a mountain weighing on their hearts, but now, it seems that they have hope to break this curse?
After a while, the destroyer accompanying the main fleet first fired the first round of flares, thinking about the distant target.
Then there were searchlight beams that looked like devil's eyes and shot back and forth on the sea! Between light and darkness, the German fleet is exposed!
"Damn it! The secondary battery fires flares! Prepare to fight!" When the battle was inevitable, Su Xiong bravely faced it! The flares from both sides crisscrossed the night sky, and then slowly fell! At this moment, the identities of the two sides quickly became clear to each other. Su Xiong's four Bavarian-class battleships, and opposite them was the entire Japanese main fleet!
"Fire!" Betty looked at the German battleships in the distance and shouted loudly. He had never given an attack order so freely. Although he was not commanding this fleet, after a moment, the artillery of the entire Japanese fleet was like a volcano erupting. The target here is tilting its fire crazily! Theoretically, in one minute, this fleet can dump more than 200 large-caliber artillery shells, and the total weight of these artillery shells will exceed 150 tons! Although it is far inferior to the large-scale battle in the North Sea, this firepower density is still world-class!
"The fleet immediately released the smoke, and we guided it through seaplanes!" Even in the worst fighting situation, Su Xiong was still trying to save the situation of the war! As early as during the war, the German fleet had conducted aviation correction experiments in order to avoid losing targets due to smoke obscuration and other reasons. However, until now, although the tactics are still not mature, Su Xiong has no other choice. Fighting in a battle line, he has no chance of winning, and if he wants to run, he probably won't have a speed advantage!
The Japanese's gunnery skills were quite adequate, and at such a close distance and with decent lighting, the first round of bombardment put tremendous pressure on the Germans. Two of the four Bavaria-class battleships were destroyed. In theory, the opponent can enter the effective shooting stage against two of the warships in the second round!
However, what the Japanese did not expect was that the German fleet's gunnery skills were even more superb! Before the smoke started to be released, but before the smoke dissipated, four German battleships took advantage of the window formed during this period to make a fierce counterattack! A half-volley of almost 20 seconds shocked the Japanese! Seeing the water column approaching him, Motaro Yoshimatsu felt tremendous pressure even under the protection of thick armor!
The huge artillery sprayed orange flames, and shells weighing more than 800 kilograms whizzed through the air, flying toward their target with an aura of destruction. Fire, explosions and death have become the main theme of this sea area! This night is destined to go down in history!
Almost at the same moment! The two sides achieved the first round of hits in this battle between battleships! A 15-inch shell from the Hessen accurately hit the main armor belt on the side of the battleship Fuso, which was also at the head of the team. The blow was unexpectedly powerful! And the location of the hit was also very good, almost hitting the seam of two armor plates! So, not surprisingly, the performance of this shell far exceeded expectations!
The heavy projectile slammed into it at a speed of more than 600 meters per second. As the hood and cover at the front of the projectile shattered, the kinetic energy of the projectile was quickly transmitted to the armor plate. So, without any surprise, these The Liu Ding used to fix the steel plate was easily shaken out, and the sharp warhead also hit the armor plate!
As if being violently torn open by a pair of big hands, the 320MM thick sloped armor that originally made the Fuso-class battleship feel safe was pierced by this blow! The shell stubbornly squeezed in through the joint between the two steel plates! The entire steel plate and the back plate behind it were smashed into pieces, and countless fragments stabbed into the interior of the hull like a directional metal jet!
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