Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Except for the most cutting-edge battleship "Washington", the rest of the U.S. fleet is an antique. The second ship "California" of the Tennessee class battleship, which was commissioned in 1921; the second ship "Mississippi" and the third ship "Idaho" of the New Mexico class battleship, which were commissioned in 1918; the "Oklahoma" which was commissioned in 1916 "; the New York-class battleships "New York" and "Texas" that were commissioned in 1910; in addition, there are battlecruisers, cruisers, and destroyers, all of which are veterans who have served for more than ten years.

Although the seven battleships seem to have a numerical advantage over the four battleships of the German fleet, the oldest of the four German battleships has been in service for no more than two years. In addition, each battleship is equipped with the most advanced fire control radar and Ballistic calculator, far superior to US battleships in performance.

The first round of artillery fire hit the middle of the American fleet, causing high water columns to rise. Looking at the sea water splashing on the bridge window, the commander of the US fleet, Lieutenant General Ingersoll, broke into a cold sweat.

Nearly missed!

Lieutenant General Ingersoll lost his composure after hearing the news that several warships around him had suffered near misses.

Even the century-old navy, the British Empire, the former maritime hegemon, probably would not be able to achieve such accuracy in daytime operations. How could the German navy be able to hit near-misses in the first round of shelling in such a dark night? !

Without allowing him to think too much, he saw another ball of fire erupting from the German fleet in the distance.

The Germans fired a second round of shells!

boom!

This time, more than just a near miss, a shell directly hit the bridge of the battleship "California" in the fleet, instantly destroying the battleship's command system.

And the "California" was not the only one that was unlucky. More than a ton of shells hit a frigate of more than 2,000 tons with strong kinetic energy. The impact alone was enough to severely damage the unlucky warship.

After hearing this shocking battle damage report, Lieutenant General Ingersoll finally realized that the German fleet could "see" them!

As for what you think, this is because the cutting-edge "Washington" battleship is equipped with a radar, but this radar is not very advanced, the sea detection range does not exceed 15 kilometers, and it does not have a fire control function. Vice Admiral Ingersoll vaguely guessed that the opponent's warships were also equipped with radars, which were probably several times more advanced than theirs!

After recognizing this, Vice Admiral Ingersoll understood that his fleet was facing a crisis.

Their original plan was to get as close as possible to the German fleet at night. It would be best to get as close as five or six kilometers away, send seaplanes to drop flares, and then destroy the German fleet with a blast of artillery. But now the Germans could see them from 20,000 meters away and fired such precise artillery fire, which put Lieutenant General Ingersoll in a dilemma.

Advance or retreat? !

If they continue to move forward, as the distance between the two sides shortens, the German artillery fire will become more accurate; by then, let alone five or six thousand meters, their fleet will probably be severely damaged if it is less than 10,000 meters. We must know that their fleet is currently the only fleet capable of fighting in the Atlantic Ocean. If it disappears like this, unless a large number of warships are transferred from the Pacific Fleet, otherwise the Atlantic Ocean will become the world of the German Navy. But the Pacific Ocean is not peaceful now, and the Pacific Fleet does not have any extra warships to support the Atlantic Fleet.

But if we just retreat like this, will the German fleet approach our doorstep?

"Full speed ahead!" Lieutenant General Ingersoll issued the order after a few seconds of hesitation. "Open fire and attack! Use the opponent's muzzle flame as a parameter and counterattack immediately!"

Unfortunately, the opponent is not stationary. If you want to rely on the opponent's muzzle flame as a parameter to hit the target, it is simply harder than reaching the sky.

The staff officer on the side suggested. "General, wait until our distance reaches 15,000 meters before we can use the radar parameters." Although their radar does not have a fire control function, it is not impossible to use the radar to measure the distance and target position and obtain approximate parameters. It's just that the hit rate after firing is the same as aiming at the opponent's muzzle. It can only rely on faith.

After the German navy fired the third round of artillery fire, the American fleet also fired artillery shells back.

"It seems that the Yankees can't sit still!" Looking at the flashes of fire in the distance, the German fleet commander Major General Bachmann sneered. "Ship with heavy mines to attack, launch torpedoes!" Although I really want to have a hearty artillery battle with the opponent, if the US fleet is unlucky and injures its own warships, it will be more than the gains are worth the losses.

The so-called "heavy mine-armed ship" came from the island nation's navy in World War II. Before the Pacific War, the island nation's navy used the U.S. Navy as its imaginary enemy and formulated a strategy of decisive battle with the U.S. fleet and victory with one blow. However, due to the convening of the Navy Downsizing Conference in Washington, the total tonnage of warships that the island nation's navy can build is only 60% of the U.S. Navy. This result forced the island nation's navy to change its combat plan. They considered reducing the number of U.S. Navy warships as much as possible before the decisive battle with the U.S. fleet to clear obstacles for the decisive battle. Various methods were studied for this purpose. One of them is the development of a secret weapon - Type 93 torpedo, which is an oxygen torpedo. According to the plan of the island nation's navy, before the artillery battle with the US fleet, launching this kind of torpedo without a track from a long distance can achieve a surprise attack effect and plunge the US military into chaos.

Having said that, it is difficult to achieve a high hit rate when striking from a long distance. Therefore, the island nation's navy thought of the method of "probabilistic lightning strike", that is, launching as many torpedoes as possible simultaneously and in a fan shape. As a result, the "heavy torpedo ship" equipped with multiple torpedo tubes was born.

Around 1936, the Kuma-class light cruisers "Kitagami" and "Oi" began preparations for transformation into heavy mine-armed ships. Since the main weapons used were oxygen torpedoes, which are top secrets of the island nation's navy, this heavy mine-armed ship transformation plan It was also not made public, and the construction and renovation of the two light cruisers was postponed until August 1941, when the war between Japan and the United States was basically determined. In December of the same year, the renovation project was completed. The main battery has only 4 140mm single-mounted guns concentrated in the front (7 before the transformation), and the key quadruple torpedo tubes are 5 on each side, for a total of 10 (before the transformation, there are twin torpedo tubes). 4 seats, 8 pieces in total). As a result, the single-side torpedo tubes of these two heavily mine-equipped ships can launch 20 torpedoes at the same time, which is equivalent to the total launch capacity of five ordinary destroyers.

But in the Pacific War, the two heavily mined ships never had a chance to launch torpedoes. Their first battle was the Battle of Midway, and they accompanied Admiral Yamamoto's main battleship group to the Central Pacific for a circle. At this time, naval warfare has entered the era of aircraft. Aircraft carriers have quickly assumed the center position of the fleet. The war situation of the island nation's navy continues to worsen, and the opportunities for continuous violent lightning strikes are becoming less and less.

Soon after, the "Kitagami" and "Oi" were transformed into high-speed transport ships and began to engage in transportation and escort missions.

Yannick moved this design over and transformed several heavy mine-armed ships. At this time, there were two heavy mine-armed ships accompanying the fleet.

As Major General Bachmann's order was issued, the two heavy torpedo-equipped ships that had already been gearing up immediately accelerated forward and fired dozens of torpedoes at the US fleet in one breath.