Chapter 2597 Old Fletcher 2
"Send a telegram immediately. I suspect General Benson was deceived by a decoy fleet." Old Fletcher said loudly.
"I'm afraid the effect of this will be very bad, because you are suing General Benson, and his transfer tonight was a failure. And you are a subordinate, and he is the commander-in-chief. Even if you send it out, General Benson cannot accept it. , and the most important thing is that you can't explain what the target is that General Benson is pursuing!" The fleet chief of staff said euphemistically. He did not directly reject Old Fletcher, but he said a very important point from another aspect. Question, what if Benson doesn’t listen!
"Damn it! Well, immediately order the patrol force to expand the search area. If there is a special situation, immediately release the flare. All battleships, I mean all naval battleships, whether they are armored cruisers, destroyers or gunboats! Give me the landing Counting the warships and fire support ships! Gather them all!" Old Fletcher ordered loudly.
"General, actually, I think what General Benson is chasing may really be just a decoy fleet. Think about it, if General Benson was chasing the Japanese main fleet, he wouldn't be able to pursue it for such a long time. The biggest challenge on both sides is If the speed difference can be more than 6 knots, even if the Japanese only have half the power, they will be gone." At this time, Colonel Nagel, the German officer in charge of liaison with Germany, suddenly said.
"But the human eye will not deceive us." An American military officer retorted.
"No, the eyes are easily deceived. I once served in the Mediterranean Fleet. We can easily simulate the lights and silhouette of a light cruiser or pre-dreadnought into a battleship at night, even during the day. If we want to add a chimney to the battleship, that’s no problem, and we can also make the chimney smoke!” said Major Nagel.
"You can take a look at these two photos. In fact, they are both the same ship! The first one is its original type, a light cruiser. Then we added wooden baffles and painted them to make it Its stem looks higher, and after we cover the 150MM cannon on it, it will become a large transport ship." As he said that, Rear Admiral Nagel took out two photos from his pocket, and then took the photos Handed over to American colleagues.
"Oh God!" Old Fletcher chuckled. I cried out in my heart. Now there is a 70% certainty that there is something wrong with Benson. God knows how the Japanese fooled Benson. Well, although it is too late to expect the Benson fleet to come back to make up for the situation, some things still have to be done! At this time, the chief of staff no longer cared about the so-called procedures and reasons. He agreed to jointly send a telegram to Benson, asking him to return immediately!
"We can't just send it to General Benson. We also need to send it to General Pershing to prepare him for the response. Also, I believe General Pershing will be better at persuading General Benson to come back." Old Fletcher did not hesitate to decide to do something directly and mobilize all the forces that could be mobilized to bring Benson back. If possible, he would even like to send a telegram to the White House!
"All right,
Then just do it. Let's prepare too. Maybe tonight will be our last glory, shining like a shooting star across the sky. "There was a hint of sadness in Old Fletcher's tone, but more of it was full of determination!
"Okay, let's get ready now, order the fleet to be ready to fight at any time, and then I'll see what I have in hand." Looking at the fleet battle sequence list sent by the staff, old Fletcher suddenly felt chilled in his heart! To be honest, strictly speaking, I don't even have a capital ship in my hands, because in the U.S. Navy's combat sequence in this plane, old-fashioned armored cruisers are not considered capital ships, and at the end they have to be pre-dreadnought battleships!
"This battle can't be fought!" Old Fletcher was really desperate. If the three of them rushed forward, the Japanese fleet would probably be wiped out in 20 minutes at most.
To be honest, the performance of the armored cruisers in Fletcher's hands is actually very good. There are 5 San Francisco-class armored cruisers in total. The last generation of American armored cruisers before World War I, each battleship has a central axis. Equipped with 6 10-inch L50 artillery pieces. The main armor belt is an 8- to 10-inch vertical armor belt, of which the ammunition magazine is 10 inches. Its defense is about the same level as the British Lion and Tiger. Although the speed is not too high due to the use of steam engines, it is still around 23 knots. And the most important thing is their long range, which is why they have one less twin 10-inch gun than their parent German armored cruiser, because these warships have to carry out missions in the ocean, and they must bring enough fuel and supplies!
But unfortunately, these armored cruisers are more than two eras behind the enemies they are about to face? ! This is really a tragic story, no, it can already be seen as a tragedy!
"Actually, if possible, we can consider the problem from another angle, so that our delay may be longer." Colonel Nagel said.
"What do you mean?" Old Fletcher did not have the slightest contempt for this German naval cruiser commander who had fought in the Mediterranean. After all, the Mediterranean battlefield back then was almost the worst of the three naval battlefields. Those who can accumulate merit and be promoted to colonel there are more or less capable.
"We are destined to be unable to protect all the transport ships. The Japanese may have more destroyers than us. Therefore, simple interception will definitely not work. We can only take a more proactive approach to force the Japanese to focus on us. body to reduce the pressure on the transport fleet," Colonel Nagel said.
"So?" Old Fletcher asked next.
"Hide first, and then attack the weak ships in the Japanese fleet, the Kongo-class battleships!" Colonel Nagel said.
"However, our first priority is to protect the safety of the transport fleet, not to attack the enemy fleet, and we can't defeat King Kong," said an officer.
"So, we must have a sneak attack! The Japanese Kongo-class battlecruiser only has an 8-inch armor belt. At the engagement distance of a night battle, it is not a big problem if we want to use the 10-inch L50 artillery to penetrate the outer armor. If we can cooperate again With torpedo boats, we have a higher chance of achieving results. Of course, the most important thing is that the Japanese value their battleships very much, and every loss of one is unbearable for the Japanese navy. Therefore, once the Kongo-class If the battlecruiser is under strong attack, then the Fuso-class battleship will definitely provide support. Even if our result will be very pessimistic, it will at least buy time for the transport fleet," said Colonel Nagel.
Two updates today~~~! Third update tomorrow~~~! Please subscribe and reward~~~!