The sun never sets.

Ito Hiromoto thought the British would refuse, but they did not.

The British agreed. In this way, there were not only Chinese but also Germans on the Hanoi battleship, and some British on other ships. Britain and Germany, which were on the verge of a naval arms race in Europe, are now on the same front to fight against the Americans...

The British government also refused to allow the US Navy to repair in Australia or any port controlled by the British and its colonial governments. The German Navy, the second largest in the world, was a thorn in the side of the British Royal Navy, and the US Navy, the third largest in the world, was a thorn in the flesh of the British Royal Navy. The "two-power standard" was aimed at Germany and the United States.

When the news reached North America, there was an uproar in the United States. But the uproar was just that. The American tradition was to "believe in God" and "hate the British". Now it just made the Americans more dissatisfied with Britain, but what could they do? Would the United States dare to declare war on Britain?

Dewey didn't care much about this. The U.S. Navy Expeditionary Fleet had already undergone a major overhaul on the west coast and had been resting in Hawaii for three days. It was in the best condition and could completely destroy the so-called "East Asia Combined Fleet" without using Australian ports.

After the main U.S. fleet moved westward, the British Royal Navy sent several cruisers to prepare to be a spectator again. The British Royal Navy did not have a high opinion of the South China Sea naval battle, publicly saying that the two warring parties were "fighting a war in the era of sailing battleships with pre-dreadnoughts", but in internal reports, they attached great importance to the problems that arose in the battle and came up with the idea of building "high-speed battleships".

The naval battle between the East Asian Alliance and the United States will be a huge collision of 800,000 tons of steel, and the dreadnought will be involved in actual combat for the first time. The British need to have first-hand information. Other powers with the same idea include Germany, Italy, Russia, and even France sent a destroyer to join in the fun.

Chapter 463: Night Attack

Imperialist countries are all very arrogant. They will not be reasonable wherever they can be unreasonable. If they are reasonable, it is because they are forced into a desperate situation.

——People's Daily/Lin Yongchang

In order to get the Americans to sit down at the negotiation table and talk, they had to be severely punished and forced into a situation of no choice. Chairman Lin's speech was printed in newspapers and widely circulated in East Asia. It was also spread to Europe by some French volunteers.

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the South China Sea, the two largest naval battles in the world in the past thirty years both took place in East Asia. Is this inevitable? Or is it accidental? The total tonnage of the East Asian Combined Fleet and the US Expeditionary Fleet now exceeds 800,000 tons. If the auxiliary ships are also counted, it will definitely exceed 1 million tons.

The collision of one million tons of steel will determine the ownership of Pacific hegemony. At the end of 1906, the most important and eye-catching thing in the world is no longer the naval arms race between European powers, no longer the colonial disputes in Morocco and Africa, and no longer the ethnic issues in the Balkan powder keg, but the Pacific War that is about to break out, or has already broken out.

The great powers sent naval warships to the Pacific Ocean one after another, carrying cameras and video cameras, ready to record this unprecedented naval decisive battle. While the onlookers still had time to enjoy coffee and talk about the news of the war, the people involved were suffering and feeling pressured.

Akiyama Saneyuki became anxious again, even more than before the South China Sea Battle. The tonnage of the French expeditionary fleet's battleships was almost the same as that of the Combined Fleet's battleships, but the U.S. Navy's battleships were twice as many as those of the Combined Fleet. If he had followed his opinion, he should not have launched an attack on the United States at this time. The battleships of both sides must be brought closer to 1:1, or at least 3:2. The core of the navy is the battleship, and the battleship bombardment will determine the outcome of the naval battle. The tonnage of the U.S. battleships is almost twice that of the East Asian Combined Fleet. How can this battle be fought?

But this is already the best time. The United States' industrial strength and shipbuilding speed are far beyond East Asia. In the future, the gap between the US Navy and the East Asian Combined Fleet will only get bigger and bigger.

In this case, the only way is to start the war at this point in time.

The U.S. Navy had an absolute advantage, but the East Asian Combined Fleet was not entirely at a disadvantage. In addition to being closer to ports and repair points, the Combined Fleet's trump card battleship "Hanoi" was stronger than the American dreadnought "South Carolina".

The standard displacement of the South Carolina-class battleship is 16000 tons, the full load displacement is 17746 tons, the ship is 138.04 meters long, 24.46 meters wide, and the draft is 8.26 meters. The power system of this class of ships includes 12 coal-fired boilers and 4 reciprocating steam engines, with a maximum output power of 16500 horsepower. As it is still equipped with an old-fashioned power system, the speed of this class of ships is only 19 knots, which is much lower than the 23 knots of the "Hanoi" dreadnought; at an economic speed of 10 knots, the cruising range of this class of ships is 5000 nautical miles.

Due to the limitation of displacement, the armor protection of the South Carolina-class battleships is relatively weak. The maximum armor thickness of its main armor belt on the side is only 279 mm, which is not as good as the "Hanoi"; the maximum thickness of the horizontal armor of the deck is 76 mm, and many non-vital parts are only about 38 mm; the armor thickness of the front of the main turret of this class of ships is 305 mm, and the armor thickness of the bridge command tower is also 305 mm.

The Americans have always been isolated from the Old World, although they have

The new technologies and concepts that emerged were very sensitive, but no country communicated with them, and they had not been tested in actual combat. The "dreadnoughts" built by the Americans had some advanced features, but also had many traces of the pre-dreadnought era. The armor of the "South Carolina" could cope with 280mm main guns, but now the main battleships have been replaced with 305mm guns; its speed was only 19 knots, which could keep up with the main battleships of the pre-dreadnought era, but the speed of dreadnoughts has generally increased to 21 knots or faster. The British are preparing to build a "high-speed battleship", or "battlecruiser", which will increase its speed to a terrifying 25 knots.

George Dewey had no idea how abnormal the "battlecruisers" that the British had secretly tinkered with were. He had no doubt about the strength of the "South Carolina". This first dreadnought built by the United States had powerful firepower and could destroy all the battleships in the combined fleet except the "Hanoi". Even the "Hanoi", in the eyes of the Dewey-class admiral, was no more than the "South Carolina". Even if the two dreadnoughts were evenly matched, he still had 17 battleships in his hands, and the East Asia Combined Fleet only had 8 ships left. 17:8, in Dewey's view, anyone could win this battle.

But the abominable pagans did not fight him head-on, but liked to play some tricks. Last night, a destroyer fleet approached the expeditionary fleet under the cover of darkness and fired torpedoes at a distance of 1000-2000 meters. Because they did not expect the enemy to be so cunning, the expeditionary fleet suffered a heavy blow. Two destroyers were hit by torpedoes and exploded into fireballs on the spot, and soon sank into the cold sea water. The "powerful Type 4 oxygen torpedo" was very powerful. Another heavy cruiser was hit by a torpedo, the hull tilted to the right, and the speed dropped to knots, and it could no longer participate in the battle. In addition, a transport ship full of ammunition and supplies was sunk.

That would have been fine, but the worst was that the Minnesota was hit by two torpedoes, and more than 9 sailors on board were killed, injured or missing. The hull was damaged, and the lost sailors and officers could be transferred from other ships, but three steam turbines were blown up, and several other steam turbines also had problems. The speed of the battleship dropped to 1 knots, and it lost the ability to continue fighting. The Minnesota was a battleship, not a light cruiser or a transport ship. With the loss of the Minnesota, Admiral Dewey's capital ships were reduced by 18/, a number that cannot be ignored.

In the chaos of the night, the lack of actual combat experience of the US expeditionary fleet was exposed. Many warships fired blindly into the darkness, but failed to hit the enemy and instead set their own ships on fire. There were some results. One enemy destroyer exploded, and the flames shot up dozens of meters into the air. The entire warship was torn apart and sank in a few minutes.

After daybreak, an officer reported that the enemy destroyer that sank was not caused by the enemy's artillery fire, but by the torpedo explosion. George Dewey immediately stopped this irresponsible statement, saying that it was clearly the brave naval officers who sank the attacking enemy ship!

Admiral Dewey declared to everyone that the enemy used despicable night attack tactics because they knew they could not stop the great American Navy. The special admiral vowed that as long as the main force of the yellow monkeys was captured, they could sink them all.

Chapter 464 Pacific Ocean

Admiral George Dewet was very angry. He had made preparations, put the transport ships and auxiliary ships in the back, and sent out cruisers and destroyers to guard around. Why did the enemy destroyer still find a chance to get into the defense network? Was there an enemy spy in the fleet?

No, the navy is all good and would never collaborate with the enemy and commit treason!

But it was hard to say about the auxiliary ships that were requisitioned. There might be spies lurking on any of them. There were many islands in the western Pacific Ocean near the Philippines, either belonging to Germany or Britain. The enemy's warships could hide behind the islands and launch surprise attacks on the expeditionary fleet at night. But he couldn't stop to search one by one. The eyes of the whole world were on him, and the army on Luzon Island was also waiting for him to rescue it.

After some thought, Dewey decided to carry out the last coaling, watering and supply operation during the day, then leave the transport fleet behind and speed up to head straight for the Philippines. He had a premonition that the enemy's main force would be waiting for him near the Philippine waters. As long as he could destroy the main force of the East Asian Combined Fleet, it would be worth it even if the losses were greater. As long as he won the decisive battle of the main force, the losses of those auxiliary ships and transport ships could be compensated by China and Japan.

The next morning, the huge fleet stayed on the sea near the Marshall Islands and spent most of the day completing the supply operation. Dewey then divided the expedition fleet into two. The auxiliary ships and supply ships continued to sail slowly at 10 knots in the rear. He himself led the main force of the fleet to speed up and swooped towards the Philippine Islands.

At night, the expedition fleet implemented a strict blackout. The sailors kept their eyes open and watched every move on the sea surface closely. They did not expect that their tracks would be discovered by the eavesdroppers under the sea. Americans built submarines as early as the War of Independence, but the submarines at that time were still wooden hulls, powered by pedals, and had a speed of only 3 knots. Modern submarines (the first decade of the th century) have made great progress and are no longer a century old submarine.

It looks the same as before, but there are still many problems and it is not suitable for long sea voyages.

However, Akiyama Saneyuki deployed submarines near islands such as Kosrae. He did not need those reconnaissance submarines to launch an attack. He only needed to detect the movements of the US Navy and then send the news back by radio.

The whole night passed without any attack on the US Navy fleet. When the sun rose and the US military just relaxed, four light cruisers appeared in the southwest of the expeditionary fleet and exchanged fire with the light warships of the expeditionary fleet. The two sides fired at each other for many rounds. The "Takachiho" protected cruiser of the Combined Fleet led the other three cruisers to concentrate their firepower and sink a destroyer of the expeditionary fleet, and then fled before the US heavy cruisers joined the battlefield.

The cruisers of the Combined Fleet have undergone certain modifications, and their firepower and speed have been improved, but the battleship armor has not been increased. Their small bodies cannot withstand the main guns of heavy cruisers, so the correct thing to do is to take advantage of them and run away.

The intensity of the combined fleet's harassment gradually increased. Before nightfall, a total of three squadrons appeared in the sight of the US expeditionary fleet. Two of them launched attacks on the US military, but only sank one of the US destroyers, and there were no other results. However, such repeated harassment inevitably made the US Navy a little impatient. And the two destroyers kept following the fleet, but did not come up to attack, just hanging there from a distance.

"I have never seen such a shameless person!"

Dewey's confidence was not as strong as before, so he sent out a squadron to drive away the two annoying flies. Major Carson of the squadron did a good job, chasing the enemy destroyer to an unknown place. The radio contact was good at first, but soon there were problems, and it was intermittent. But it was not a big problem. Even if the radio on Major Carson's flagship had problems, there were radios on other ships that could be used.

Radios of this era were not very reliable and often broke down. Unless you were extremely unlucky, an entire squadron would have its radio stations break down.

The sky gradually darkened, and the wind and waves gradually became stronger. The sky in the distance was covered with dark clouds, and from time to time, golden lightning could be seen winding and crawling in the clouds. It seemed that a rainstorm was coming. Dewey was not worried about the storm, but was a little happy. With such strong winds and waves, the joint fleet should not come to attack at night. Moreover, the center of the storm was far away, and the impact on the fleet was small. Admiral Dewey then ordered the fleet to anchor in the sea near Palikir and prepare to set off after dawn.

The Combined Fleet did not come to launch an attack that evening, but in the second half of the night, the wind and waves became stronger. The U.S. Navy used to hang around America and rarely deployed its main fleet far away from America. Even when the Spanish Navy was destroyed in Cavite, only seven warships were dispatched. In the expeditionary fleet led by Admiral Dewey, there were 7 battleships alone. For such a large fleet, scheduling was a big problem. The U.S. Navy did not have enough warships before, and many people had to switch to other jobs after graduating from the Naval Academy. Now there are too many ships and not enough experienced officers and sailors.

Theodore Roosevelt worked as the Secretary of the Navy before becoming president. After taking over as president, he doubled the total tonnage of the US Navy in one go. If they waited another year, they could launch two more battleships. But the Americans could not wait any longer. After East Asia and the United States declared war on each other, the Combined Fleet had sunk all of the small US fleets in the Philippines and bombarded Manila. If the US Navy did not take action, Manila would fall sooner or later.

The wind and waves were getting stronger and stronger, and the huge battleships were dwarfed by the might of heaven and earth. The tens of thousands of tons of warships were constantly rising and falling with the waves. The wind and waves in the Pacific Ocean were not as strong as those in the Atlantic Ocean, but that was an average value. It was hard to say at a specific place or at a specific time.

Dewey did not sleep well that night. The hull of the South Carolina made a "creaking" sound in the wind and waves, which made him upset. The admiral knew that the Pacific Ocean was not always peaceful, but such strong winds and waves still made him feel uncomfortable and unaccustomed. This was the Pacific Ocean, not the Atlantic Ocean!

Chapter 465 North by West

After daybreak, the rain was much lighter and the wind and waves were not so strong. The various squadrons reported the situation. Two destroyers and a light cruiser were blown away by the wind and their whereabouts were unknown. In addition, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer were stranded, but it was not a big problem. When the tide rose, they would be able to get out of trouble.

However, Dewey could not wait that long, so he sent out several warships to tow the trapped ship out. But after towing the destroyer out, he found that the power system was damaged by the shock. It was probably because of the rush to complete the work, so there were some quality problems. It was fine at ordinary times, but it broke down at the critical moment.

But it's not a big problem, as long as there are no problems with the remaining 17 battleships. As long as the battleships are brought to the Philippines, the enemy's main fleet can be overturned, and everything else is not important!

Is it really not important?

Dewey was a little scared. The cruisers of the combined fleet were running very fast and the torpedoes they used were very powerful, which was beyond his imagination. The British watched the most intense battle in the South China Sea and got a lot of useful information, but did not report it.

The United States could only get some useful information from the side, such as newspapers. The only thing they knew was Akiyama Saneyuki's "big turn before the battle", and other more detailed things were not very clear. They did not know that the Combined Fleet could launch artillery fire at a distance of more than 12,000 meters, that the Combined Fleet had replaced the "powerful Type 93 oxygen torpedo", and that they did not know the role of "high-speed battleships" in naval battles.

Because of their ethnicity, it was difficult for Japan and China to send spies to the United States. They had to find people with Western appearance. Similarly, it was not smooth for the United States to send spies to China, Japan or other East Asian countries. The American intelligence agencies collected some information, but most of it was full of exaggerated descriptions and nonsense, and very little was useful.

It was not until he actually fought the Combined Fleet that Dewey realized that the enemy he faced this time was completely different from the last time. The emerging East Asian Alliance was not a ruined country like Spain. Although the steel production of the entire East Asia combined was less than a quarter of that of the United States, the US Navy did not have an overwhelming advantage.

Dewey still feels that "the advantage is with me". The East Asia Combined Fleet is taught by the British Royal Navy and attaches great importance to firepower and speed. This has caused great trouble to the slow-moving US Expeditionary Fleet. However, Dewey still believes that as long as he enters the stage of battleship bombardment, he will be able to win.

Apart from the annoying torpedoes, the only ones that can cause damage to battleships are battleships of the same level or stronger. The use of torpedoes is very limited. Its range is too short, and it must be used close to be effective. That is, it can only play a role in night battles and sneak attacks. In a decisive battle, the biggest use of torpedoes is to disrupt the enemy's formation.

Torpedoes of this era had all sorts of problems. Seven out of ten times, American torpedoes would not explode after hitting the target. There were also problems with depth determination, the problem of being easily missed, and the problem of being easily self-destructed.

The "powerful Type 93 oxygen torpedo" uses pure oxygen instead of air as the torpedo's combustion aid, allowing the torpedo's propellant to burn fully, significantly increasing the torpedo's speed and range, while saving propellant and helping to increase the torpedo's charge. The propellant burns in pure oxygen, mainly producing carbon dioxide that is slightly soluble in water, and is not prone to producing bubbles. The torpedo is not easy to expose its traces when sailing, and its concealment is greatly enhanced.

Because it uses the latest technology, this type of torpedo is not only very expensive, but also has reliability issues. During the first night attack by the Combined Fleet, a torpedo exploded and sank its own destroyer. Before rescuing the sailors who fell into the water, the "Yukikaze" fired all its torpedoes, regardless of whether they could hit the target. Anyway, it just fired indiscriminately in the direction of the US fleet.

The "Type 93 Oxygen Torpedo" is extremely powerful. One shot can paralyze a powerful battleship. It is also very effective when used to blow up your own people. It is safer to fire these things as soon as possible. Dewey learned from his subordinates that the enemy's torpedo exploded. On the one hand, he ordered the news to be blocked, claiming that it was his own artillery that sank the enemy ship. On the other hand, he strengthened his belief in a decisive battle as soon as possible.

The huge American expeditionary fleet was like a heavy knight charging, pressing towards the Philippines with an overwhelming force. The Combined Fleet was like a light cavalry, constantly harassing and using various means to weaken the U.S. military, but it could not stop the huge fleet from advancing.

After a series of harassment and counter-harassment, as well as pursuit and counterattack, Dewey led the main fleet to the vicinity of Samar Island in central Philippines. If they advanced another few dozen nautical miles, they would enter the Leyte Gulf, but the main force of the combined fleet had already appeared in the sea to the northwest.

Dozens of thick smoke billowed into the sky. Even though anthracite was used as fuel, under the close watch of the lookout, its traces could still be discovered from a long distance.

"Enemy battleships! 7 degrees north by west! Number 6... No, there are 8 battleships!"

"It's the main force of the combined fleet!"

"Enemy cruiser fleet spotted in northeast direction! 69 degrees north by west!"

"Heavy patrol 5, light patrol 7!"

"Enemy destroyer fleet spotted!"

..........................

..........................

One after another, the news was reported to the combat command room, and the shrill alarm sounded on every battleship. George Dewey rushed onto the deck with a telescope and looked northwest. The flagship of the Combined Fleet, the Hanoi, was at the forefront. This dreadnought was obviously larger than the other battleships nearby, and its displacement must have exceeded 20,000 tons.

Watching the battleship split the sea with such ease, Dewey's heart couldn't help but twitch slightly. "Damn it! Congress only knows how to save money!" He held the telescope tightly and carefully counted the main guns on the enemy ship. Fortunately, the "Hanoi" only had four twin-mounted 305mm main guns, the same as the "South Carolina", but he still had 16 other battleships, the advantage was mine!

The combined fleet came charging forward aggressively, obviously intending to have a decisive battle. This was exactly what Dewey wanted. He was fed up with the enemy's tricks. During the repeated harassment, the weakness of the US expeditionary fleet, which was generally too slow, was magnified, so that despite its powerful firepower and tonnage, it was unable to achieve victory.

Very good exchange ratio.

Now the enemy finally rushed out, which was good. Dewey returned to the combat command room and began to issue combat orders, "Let's teach those barbarians a lesson! Let them know that the great American Navy is not a waste like the French Navy!"

Chapter 466: A Massacre

"........The storm has passed, but a bigger storm is coming... This is an unprecedented decisive battle at sea... The victorious side will become the overlord of the big bathtub of the Pacific Ocean..."

The US Expeditionary Fleet had 17 battleships, and if the heavy cruisers were included, the number of US Navy battleships would exceed 30. But it was obvious that in such an important decisive battle, the heavy cruisers could only play a supporting role and could not join the battle line of the battleship formation.

In the vast Pacific Ocean, only battleships are the real protagonists.

The 17 battleships of the United States Navy are: South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Kansas, Vermont, Georgia, Nebraska, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kilsach, and Kentucky.

Among these 17 battleships, only the South Carolina is a dreadnought, and the others are products of the pre-dreadnought era. Among them, the Pennsylvania is the newest pre-dreadnought, and it was pulled into the expeditionary fleet before the sailors on board had time to complete their training. The other battleships are a bit old, such as the Kearsarge and Kentucky, which were built seven or eight years ago. In this era of rapid development of naval equipment, the performance of old battleships, mainly speed, has been seriously outdated.

However, battleships are battleships, even old battleships have thick armor and formidable firepower, and are the backbone of the fleet. The small water pipes on destroyers and cruisers have no good way to deal with them, and the most effective way to attack is to rush to the front and launch torpedoes, but before entering the range of fish, those light warships will be torn into pieces by the main and secondary guns of the battleships.

Because the battleships had different speeds, Admiral George Dewet divided the 17 battleships into two teams, with the faster ones forming a pair and the rest of the slower ones forming the other team.

The Combined Fleet also used the same formation method, grouping the fast warships together and the slow warships together. The Combined Fleet had a total of 9 battleships, including the latest dreadnought "Hanoi", 8 battleships, and several other armored cruisers and heavy cruisers, making a total of 16 battleships. However, these so-called "battleships" were far behind the battleships of the US Army in terms of tonnage and firepower. However, most of these battleships had been modernized, mainly to strengthen their firepower. Some of them were also equipped with the latest carburized steel armor, which improved their protection. In addition, their speed was also faster than that of the US battleships.

Akiyama Saneyuki did not regard the "Kanochi" as his flagship. Today's daytime battle would rely on the "Kanochi" to take the lead. He and everyone in the combined fleet had high hopes for this dreadnought. When the main fleets of both sides approached each other, the "Kanochi" increased its speed to 23 knots, and rushed to the front with high-speed cruisers such as the "Yakumo" and "Onto-no-Yu", and soon engaged in a firefight with the vanguard of the US expeditionary fleet.

"Is that... a Japanese dreadnought? Why can it run so fast?"

"Oh my god! The enemy's battleship is faster than our cruiser!"

The American dreadnought can only run at 19 knots. Under extreme conditions, it can be a little faster, that is, just over 20 knots. However, the "Hanoi" can actually increase its speed to 23 knots!

It was 3:32 pm, the sun was setting in the west, and the East Asia Combined Fleet was facing away from the sun, which gave them some advantages in terms of time and location. The US Navy had come from afar, and both the warships and the sailors had some problems. The warships needed to be inspected and repaired when the fleet was transferred from the east coast of the United States to the west coast, but they did not have a large dock for repairs all the way from the west coast. The problems with the warships were one aspect, and the long sea voyages made people exhausted, and they had to fight the enemy at night and during the day, which made many people very anxious and neurotic.

The harassment of the Combined Fleet a few days ago played a big role. In addition to severely damaging an American battleship, the biggest effect was to make the Americans exhausted. When people are nervous and tired, they are prone to get angry, lose their minds, and do some stupid things.

The "Hanoi", which was in the front, attracted the firepower of the US vanguard fleet. The effective range of this cutting-edge dreadnought was 13000 meters, but it rushed to a distance of about 8000 meters before using high-explosive bombs to blow the US cruiser into a burning steel coffin.

"Fire!"

"Aim for that son of a bitch!"

The Americans were also proud of being a great power. Although they were exhausted, they still had a psychological advantage over the natives of East Asia. The warships nearby were hit one after another and caught fire. The American sailors were angry and fearful, and they wasted all their firepower on the "Hanoi", ignoring the "Yakumo" and "

Otowa and other light battleships.

The distance between the two sides continued to close. The closer they were, the more accurate their attacks would be. This was a very simple truth. The armor-piercing shells fired by the main guns of the "Hanoi" would have been too powerful to bombard destroyers, so they fired high-explosive shells at this time. After the distance was shortened, the high-explosive shells caused terrible damage to the vanguard fleet of the US military. The main guns fired one after another, spewing long flames, causing destruction and death on the sea surface covered with sunlight.

"Boom!" "Boom!"

The twin turrets fired deadly shells again, turning a US Navy cruiser into a torch. In front of the 305mm caliber main gun, whether it was a cruiser or a destroyer, it was a single shot that killed the enemy.

"...The Courageous is done for...beat that son of a bitch!"

"Revenge for the Courageous!"

As the distance shortened, the hit rate of the US heavy cruiser also increased. After firing a straddle shot, it fired two more salvos and finally hit the "Hanoi" which was killing people. "Boom!" A shell exploded on the front deck, and a ball of flame exploded on the gray hull. The air waves spread, and the fragments of the shell formed a metal storm on the deck.

"Okay! That's it!"

"Hit!"

The cheers of the Americans stopped abruptly, and the flames dissipated, leaving an ugly scar on the "Hanoi", but the steel monster did not suffer any substantial damage. The thick armor took all the damage, and it still had unparalleled firepower and speed. The US warships continued to fire, and several shells exploded on the "Hanoi" one after another, but still failed to cause effective damage to the "Hanoi". The US vanguard fleet wanted to rush to the "Hanoi" and release torpedoes, but the "Hanoi" did not give them a chance.

The huge warship drew a beautiful arc on the sea, shaking off the American warships that wanted to fight to the death. The cruisers such as "Yakumo" and "Otowa" that followed took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack on the American warships, sinking another light cruiser and a destroyer.

Chapter 467: Fierce Battle

The East Asian Combined Fleet had the upper hand in the battle from 3:32 to :. Without any casualties on its own side, it sank or severely damaged one-third of the ships of the US vanguard fleet and forced the US light warships to leave the battlefield. This created an opportunity for the Combined Fleet battleship formation to seize the "T" formation.

At this time, the fleet usually marched in several parallel columns, and the US Expeditionary Fleet did the same. Relatively speaking, this formation is more maneuverable. Several shorter columns can turn faster than a long snake formation, and can also transmit the signal of the flagship (usually at the head of the central column) to the entire fleet more quickly through searchlights or flags. In a long snake formation, the signal sent by the flagship at the head of the column often takes 10 minutes or even more to be transmitted to the last ship in the column. This is because the black smoke from the battleship chimney makes it difficult to identify the signals sent from the front and back, and each ship has to repeat the message it receives to the ship behind it (or in front). And because many messages must be confirmed by each ship before they can be implemented, the time wasted may be doubled.

Fleets often form several columns to fight the enemy before engaging in battle. This requires the leading ship of each column to lead the ships it leads to turn left or right to form a suitable formation. Since the fleets of both sides are traveling at high speed, fleet commanders need to send out reconnaissance fleets (usually composed of cruisers and destroyers) to report the enemy's position, speed, course and other information, so that the fleet can form the most advantageous formation as soon as possible to fight the enemy. The reconnaissance fleet must also try to prevent the opponent's reconnaissance fleet from obtaining similar information.

The most ideal situation is that the column formed by the enemy fleet is just across the route of the enemy fleet, forming a "T" (the enemy fleet is located at the horizontal position of the "T"), so that all the front and rear main guns and all the side guns on one side can aim at the enemy, and the enemy can only fire back with the front main guns of the ships at the front of the column. However, the plan to form a T-shaped formation depends largely on luck: since both sides are advancing at high speed, it is very likely that due to the wrong timing, the horizontal part of the "T" will become the vertical part, thus passively being hit.

However, because the combined fleet had the "Hanoi", it completely suppressed the US vanguard fleet and had the upper hand in the early battles. The US light warships could not penetrate the armor of the "Hanoi", nor could they withstand the fierce firepower of the "Hanoi". No matter how tenacious the Americans were, no matter how much they believed in "white supremacy", they could not win. After a hard battle and the loss of one-third of their ships, the US vanguard fleet could only withdraw with hatred.