"Great! I finally caught up!"
"God bless America!"
"It's time to show these yellow-skinned monkeys something awesome!"
"They can't run away now... We can avenge those on Wall Street!"
"That's right, we are the U.S. Navy that knows best about night fighting!"
When the flare fired by the armored destroyer USS Maya illuminated the USS Pennsylvania, there was a sudden burst of joy in the bridge of the USS Pennsylvania. At this moment, all U.S. naval officers, including David Porter, firmly believed that victory would belong to them.
The reason is simple, because they all believe that the U.S. Navy must be the best navy in the world at night combat!
Before the emergence of equipment like radar and night vision devices that can help the strong operate at night, naval powers with superior equipment and military strength usually did not like night battles - the real naval powers fought in broad daylight. In a fight, you can rely on the ship to be stronger and the cannon to be more powerful, and you can definitely win by crushing it with strength. Why do you have to play with your heartbeat in the dark at night?
Moreover, night battles must be close combat, which gives the enemy's torpedo boats and smaller-caliber cannons that cannot penetrate our own armor at long distances an opportunity to exert their power. Strong men on the battlefield always like to kill chickens with a knife, and subjectively they will never give their opponent a chance to make a comeback.
Therefore, world-class navies such as the British Royal Navy and the Ming Dynasty Navy will avoid fighting the enemy in low visibility and high sea conditions... What they like is to use performance and quantity to dominate in broad daylight and calm seas. The hull crushes the opponent.
As for night battles, the British Royal Navy often fought them in the age of sails, but in the age of steam ironclads, they didn't like them much anymore.
As for the Ming Navy, it seems that they like to bully others with their superior equipment. According to the intelligence wholesaled by the U.S. Navy from their "English father", what the Ming Dynasty Navy is best at now is to send planes to drop bombs from a distance, damaging the enemy's ships, and then its own battleships, cruisers, and destroyers come to the rescue. Moreover, they didn’t fight hard when they were on the field. Instead, they launched a high-performance torpedo thousands of meters away to bully people, no, they bullied ships!
In addition, the British Royal Navy also suspected that the Ming Navy had a submarine that could dive underwater and launch torpedoes. When they investigated the losses of the Indian fleet, they found reports of dozens of ships being hit by mines inexplicably!
Moreover, some surviving sailors discovered that there was a mysterious ship with a very low freeboard that was almost sinking into the water. It appeared before their ship was sunk, and then disappeared without a trace...
In short, it cannot be said that there are no records of the surface ships of the Ming Navy actively seeking night battles, and they are rarely seen.
As for the Japanese Navy, no one has paid attention to them... I guess they are similar to the Ming Dynasty Navy, right?
In this timeline, anyone who has studied a little bit of East Asian history knows that China is the eternal Rome of the East! Japan, Korea, Annan, Siam, Ryukyu... they all look up to the "Rome of the East"! Even if Japan has been at odds with Ming Dynasty, it is just trying to get better conditions for integrating into "Rome". Before integrating, they studied very hard in Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, in the eyes of knowledgeable people around the world, the so-called "Texas Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force" is nothing more than a squadron of the Pacific Fleet of the Ming Dynasty...the equipment, command, training, and even the salaries and benefits of officers and soldiers are all Given by Daming.
Therefore, the tactical capabilities of the "Dezhou Haizi" should be the same as those of the Ming Navy.
The "Texas Coast Guard" bombing of Norfolk Naval Port and New York also proved this point.
As for why the Japanese discovered the Pennsylvania... it should be an accident. It may also be that the Pennsylvania is relatively large, with a standard displacement of 13,000 tons. As for the Dezhou Sea, except for the two aircraft-carrying ships, the other ships are three to four thousand tons.
Thinking of this, David Porter had a plan in mind. He just heard him shout an order: "Order the destroyer to turn on the searchlight to search for enemy ships, and then use flares after discovering the enemy ships... Therefore, the armored cruiser maintains light control and continues to maintain Column and follow the flagship Pennsylvania!"
"Yes, Lieutenant General!
"
The answer to him was, of course, a confident voice!
Americans are always very confident!
...
David Porter obviously underestimated the vision level at night and the professionalism of the "Cat-Eyed Samurai" selected from all over Japan!
Although the Japs in this timeline spoke against Ming, they actually had Ming as their teacher for a hundred years. However, the night fighting level of the Japanese Navy has actually always been higher than that of the Ming Navy... The "secret method" of eating cod liver oil and carrots was originally unknown to the Japanese, but they also have their own clever trick, which is to choose from all over the country. "Cat Eye Warrior".
Japan has a population of 20 million after all! Moreover, the identity of a samurai is very attractive, so the Shogunate Navy, which attaches great importance to night battles, has never been short of "cat-eyed samurai".
In addition, there is another thing about Japan's "Cat-Eyed Samurai" that the American lookout soldiers cannot compare with: they are extremely responsible!
If a "Cat-Eyed Samurai" is caught dozing off during combat duty, or if he fails to discover it first when encountering an enemy, he will commit seppuku... It's not the "craftsmanship" kind of thing, but actually slashing his belly with a knife.
Therefore, these cat-eyed warriors who work the night shift must not dare to wander around during the day, but recharge their batteries in cabins specially arranged for them. At night, they took office in high spirits, staring at their "cat's eyes" to search for traces of the enemy in the darkness.
In fact, when the Maya's secondary battery fired the flare, the cat-eyed warrior on the Maya had already sent out the U.S. Navy formation for a while - the cat-eyed warrior discovered this large ship at a distance of 10,000 meters from the Pennsylvania. The existence of the ship.
However, Nobuto Otani Seiichiro is very smart. He knows that he is not strong enough and cannot defeat the enemy by long-distance bombardment. He can only try his best to get closer and then launch 450mm steam gas torpedoes-these torpedoes are mounted on Kokoku-level armor. The turrets on both sides of the destroyer can be launched forward. Two triplex, a total of 6 450mm steam gas torpedoes.
A torpedo of this size is small among steam gas torpedoes and has a relatively short range. When the torpedo sails at a speed of 36 knots, the maximum range is only 7,000 meters.
In order to launch these 6 steam gas torpedoes, Otani Seiichiro immediately issued an order to change the formation. He formed a formation directly in front of the U.S. armored cruiser formation, and then quietly moved forward without firing the cannons until he and the U.S. Navy When the Pennsylvania was less than 5,000 meters away, it finally couldn't help but give the order to launch flares.
"It's a Pennsylvania class!" Seiichiro Otani recognized the Pennsylvania class illuminated by flares at a glance. He immediately shouted, "4000 meters, torpedo salvo, then free fire!"
"Yes, sir!"
At this moment, several destroyers responsible for escorting six Pennsylvania-class destroyers on the sea had turned on their searchlights, and several light beams were sweeping around on the sea, obviously looking for enemy ships.
After scanning for a while, a beam of light had already swept across the hull of the Kokoku-class armored destroyer Aoba. Immediately afterwards, all the light beams moved to the Aoba, and then there were three more "dong dong dong" sounds, and three illumination bombs were shot into the air near the Aoba. Male Tan Seiichiro also felt pain in his eyes and suddenly became nervous.
The time to decide the fate of victory and defeat is about to begin.
"4000 meters..."
Before the eyesight of the male Tan Seiichiro Nobuyoshi could be fully restored, the navigator of the Maya roared.
Nobuyuki Otani Seiichiro immediately shouted: "Right now, launch the torpedoes!"
"Yes, sir!" shouted Maya's gunnery officer.
"Bah, bah, bah..."
After a few soft blasts, six 450mm steam gas torpedoes were sprayed out of the torpedo tube, dragging a white track and rushing towards the Pennsylvania in the huge darkness at a high speed of 36 knots.
