Unlike the almost one-sided battle on the side of Task Force 43, on the side of Task Force 42, there was not much fighting!

After daybreak, the Nuland Task Force 12 had already retreated.

After two hours of pursuit, at around 9 a.m., Zhang Guozhu ordered to slow down and turn, citing the fear that the Nuland convoy would take the opportunity to sail towards the Narrow Empire.

In the current situation, Zhang Guozhu was worried about being bombed by Nuland's carrier-based aircraft.

At that time, the Nuland aircraft carrier task force had already been discovered, and the decisive battle in the air was even more imminent, and if the 42nd task force rashly pursued, it might be bombed.

After that, the cruisers of both sides entangled and fought for more than 2 hours.

Just after 11 a.m., the battle for Task Force 42 was over.

There were some gains, such as sinking a light cruiser and three destroyers, possibly damaging four battleships.

It's just that it's not worth mentioning at all.

In fact, the battle of the 43rd Task Force was not one-sided.

By the time the battle was over, all four fast battleships were scarred.

The "Yanhai" was the most courageous, but also the most seriously damaged.

The armor turret at the bow of the ship was almost completely scrapped, and the C turret at the tail had a barrel blown off.

If it weren't for the thick frontal armor of the main gun turret, the 16-inch armor-piercing shell that hit the armor turret would probably explode inside the turret, or at least blow the turret away.

The "Asahimi" was the least damaged, but it was also very ugly.

And the point is, all four battleships ran out of shells!

In the end, even high-explosive shells were used.

It was used against the light cruisers of the Newland Navy, not against the battleships.

At the end of the battle, there were 17 main gun shells left on the "Asahi", 8 on the "Yanhai", 21 on the "Beihe" and 14 on the "Nanjiang".

Since it was built, the main gun ammunition depots of these four battleships have never been so empty!

Without shells, what to fight?

It can be seen that Spu's worries are indeed a bit superfluous.

Even if the 43rd Task Force encountered it at night, as long as it withstood the first few rounds of shelling, it would be able to use those four battleships as air.

Without shells, could it be that they rushed up and sank the Nuland aircraft carrier?

Compared to absolute speed, fast battleships are still a little slower than fleet carriers.

It's just that Spu doesn't know this.

When he received the battle report from Li Jie, Bai Zhizhan was already on the "Accompanying Beijing".

At that time, Zhou Yongtao was explaining the situation to him, trying to persuade him to order a turn to the east, so as to launch an attack in the afternoon.

The battle report sent by Li Jie blocked Zhou Yongtao's mouth.

Because the ammunition has run out, the 43rd Task Force has returned to sail and will return to the home port with the "Longjiang" after joining the 21st Task Force in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The damage to the four fast battleships was so severe that it would definitely have to go back to the shipyard for major repairs.

The "Longjiang" was badly damaged because of the flight deck, and even if it did not need to return to the shipyard, it had to stay in the port for a while.

In addition, the "Mohe" has sunk.

Although the officers and men of the damage management department did their best, and dozens of officers and men died during the rescue attempt, the "Mohe" was too seriously flooded.

At around 1 p.m., after the sea overflowed the hangar deck, the captain had to give the order to abandon the ship.

The horizontal watertight compartment of the "Longjiang" class is actually under the hangar deck, and as long as the sea water overflows the hangar deck, the aircraft carrier will definitely be saved.

By 2:30 p.m., after all the officers and men had evacuated, the accompanying destroyer fired two torpedoes at the "Mohe," whose flight deck was almost submerged by the sea.

It is not that they are worried that the "Mohe" will not be able to sink, but that they are using torpedoes to see off the aircraft carrier.

Actually, this is a tradition of the Imperial Navy.

If the ship is badly damaged in battle and cannot return to port, it must be sunk by its own ship.

In this way, it is not sunk by enemy ships.

According to the legend of the Imperial Navy, if a warship has a soul, it can only rest in peace and be reincarnated after being buried with your own hands.

For decades, only the names of battleships that were buried by themselves were reused.

Probably because I don't think it's lucky, the names of all the battleships that were sunk by the enemy will not be used again.

Task Force 43 has been withdrawn, is there any guarantee to continue the pursuit of Task Force 17?

Even if Task Force 43 hadn't withdrawn, it wouldn't have helped.

The 43.2nd detachment had only a few light cruisers, and all of them were treaty-type light cruisers, which were no match for the Nuland heavy cruisers.

The closest heavy cruisers at that time were 42.2 ships of the "Zizhou" class of the 4th detachment.

Unfortunately, it was still more than 300 kilometers away, and the four heavy cruisers were behind the four "Longjiang" class ships, going north to intercept the Nuland convoy.

In addition, there were several heavy cruisers of the 21st Task Force.

It's just that the 21st Task Force is more than 400 kilometers away from the rear, and Liu Xiangzhen will definitely not send a heavy cruiser to cover the Bai Zhi War, let alone help the Bai Zhi War expand the results.

With the situation at that time, if Liu Xiang had really had the heart, he would have let the 4 heavy cruisers of the 21.3rd detachment come a long time ago.

In fact, given the relative position of Task Force 41 and Task Force 21, even if Task Force 21.3 went forward at full speed after the battle began, it would not be able to catch up with Task Force 41 before dark, and naturally it would not be able to provide cover for Task Force 41 at night.

What if you catch up?

Detachment 21.3 consisted of four Queensland-class first-generation treaty-type heavy cruisers, which were not very powerful, had not been really improved, and were not equipped with gun-sighting radars, and were no match for the four "Xinao" class heavy cruisers of the Nuland Task Force 17.

If you want to fight, you may not be able to take advantage.

Do not forget that the heavy cruisers of the 17th Task Force 17 in the Nuland were equipped with radars.

Even if it is not an artillery sighting radar, it is an anti-aircraft search radar, which is of great help in night battles and can greatly improve the hit rate of artillery strikes.

It can be seen that the 21st Task Force cannot be counted on at all.

During the daytime battles, especially after the discovery of Nuland's Task Force 16, Task Force 41 continued to sail north, hoping to shorten the distance with Task Force 43 so that it could get cover and support from Task Force 43 after the battle.

Where did I think that Li Jie was also exhausted.

In the words of Bai Zhizhan, probably because he can only watch the air show in the rear in peacetime, after seizing the opportunity, Li Jie and Jin Hong will do their best.

Feelings, not in the war, but after staying in the army for more than half a year, go home and make love to his wife.

As much strength as possible, make as much effort as possible.

Either way, the battle report sent by Li Jie officially ended the battle.

Actually, it's not the end yet.

That night, a Nuland submarine attacked the returning "Longjiang". Although all the torpedoes missed, one of them hit the escort "Luhe". The violent explosion tore a large hole several meters long on the left side of the hull of the "Luhe", resulting in the death of hundreds of officers and men. Because it did not leave the theater of operations, the whole ship was still in a state of combat readiness, so the water ingress was controlled in time.

This torpedo allowed the "Luhe" to lie down at the shipyard for three months.

By the early morning of the 13th, more than a dozen broken cruisers under the name of the Second Fleet, under the cover of the 42nd Task Force, began to intercept the Newland freighter that had not had time to escape.

The scuffle continued until the 15th, when the last Nuland freighter was sunk.