Night fell, but the fight was far from over.

"Sir, according to the latest reconnaissance situation, the enemy fleet still maintains a large formation and has not spread out in all directions, but the course has been changed to the northwest and is heading for Puerto Rico."

Mashal nodded with a grim expression: "The American general is very confident in himself, do you really think that we dare not fight him at night?" ”

As the commander of the American theater of operations in the South Atlantic, Marshal Machar was supposed to continue to stay with Ozawa and others, but the huge losses of the fleet completely angered him, and he decided to personally lead the night battle troops to pursue, and now this mighty advancing formation includes the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Roma, Veneto, Oi, Kitakami, 6 destroyers, and 24 S-boats, which are murderously rushing towards the American fleet, with a speed of up to 28 knots.

Originally, the Reich was still on the list, but Machar considered her injuries and decided to let the Reich stay to protect the carrier force after a moment of silence, and the ship was not fast enough to reach 24 knots.

The artillery fleet that originally had 8 battleships \ battle cruisers has shrunk a lot of strength, the Richelieu and the Litorio have sunk, the Tirpitz is seriously injured and will definitely not be able to participate in the battle, although the Roma and the Reich are injured, they are not too serious, there are two ships on the list, but the position of the Reich is not ideal, and the fastest speed can only run to 24 knots, and Machar finally decided to give up.

"Wouldn't that be enough? The enemy had at least 3 more battleships. ”

Machar laughed: "Enough, my target is those wounded flat-topped ships, and the battleships I have little interest in leaving to the Bermuda Squadron to solve!" Of course, I won't refuse to fight with us, you can let them taste the power of oxygen torpedoes, Oi and Kitakami haven't opened for a long time, and the Führer has a lot of money on it, but it can't be wasted! ”

The crowd burst into laughter.

"Sir, General Ozawa has sent a telegram that he has led the aircraft carrier group to turn to the northeast and break away, and at the same time is preparing to release a night reconnaissance plane, and if the time is right, he will send the plane to participate in the night battle."

Machar nodded with satisfaction, the so-called night reconnaissance aircraft is the night cloud, but the radar equipped on it is obviously better than the Japanese one. As for the ability to fight at night, the German pilots, although slightly inferior to their Japanese counterparts, were much better than the Americans.

"General Garland sent a telegram that the heavy reconnaissance plane has taken off and will provide full alert and search for the fleet."

"I knew that the Americans couldn't run!" He coldly gave the order, "The main artillery is ready for ammunition, and the engine, rangefinder, and radar equipment are overhauled at the end, so that the young men's eyes will be brighter, and the whole army will charge and defeat the Americans!." ”

Vice Admiral Bey, the former commander of the bombardment fleet and transferred from the Tirpitz to cooperate with the operational command, snapped to the ground and immediately gave the order: "Attack with all your troops!" ”

In the last round of attacks in the afternoon, although the US forces sent a lot of planes, they did not completely wipe out the German aircraft carrier formation, but lost many planes and pilots, which made Mitchell and others worried.

What is even more worrying is that almost all the main warships of the Atlantic Fleet were damaged, especially the seriously injured Antietam, which had been reduced to only 11 knots, and the whole fleet could only move slowly at this speed.

Indeed, there were also staff officers who proposed to abandon the ship and retreat quickly, but Mitchell refused, because the Antietam was 11 knots, the Champlain Lake was 14 knots, the New Jersey was 15 knots, and there were a bunch of 1618 knots of ships, if the ships with a speed of 11 knots were to be abandoned, should the ships of 14 or 15 knots be abandoned? Should the 1618 ship be abandoned? All abandoned, what is left of the Atlantic Fleet? Could it be that he, Mitchell, is like Halsey to be the commander of the light pole? The Shangri-La, the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, has sunk, and now the Pacific Fleet is "again" completely destroyed. He emphasized that the capital ships must be brought in a way as long as they are repaired in 24 months, and most of these warships can be restored, and with the newly built warships, the naval strength can still be maintained.

Hewitt deeply understood Mitchell's desire to bring all these capital ships with him, because there was more than one enemy of the United States, and of course Germany was difficult to deal with, and Japan was also difficult to deal with.

However, the slow speed of some warships will slow down the overall retreat, because the Germans still have a strong battleship force, so it is proposed to break through too scattered. Mitchell thought carefully about this suggestion for several minutes, and finally shook his head in rejection, he had his concerns: the scattered breakthrough was easy to be broken by each one, and the German submarines were quite powerful, and the danger of the scattered breakthrough was very high.

"We're not far from Puerto Rico, and as long as we survive this night, the Air Force will be able to cover us tomorrow." At the time of saying this, Mitchell had no idea that Mashal had pounced on him in a murderous manner.

"What if?"

"In case, although it is a bit dangerous, we also have the opportunity to destroy the enemy nearby." Mitchell muttered, "The Puerto Rican Air Force will be able to dispatch after dawn, and with some carrier-based aircraft, there are really German warships that dare to pounce on them and sink them completely." ”

"If it weren't for the fact that there was only one aircraft carrier left in the fleet that could fight, I would have planned to continue the attack tomorrow!" Mitchell gritted his teeth and said, "We are in a difficult situation now, and the Germans are no better!" ”

Relying on the tracking of night reconnaissance planes, Machar commanded the fleet to pursue at a high speed of 28 knots, while the US fleet sailed at a speed of only 11 knots, and the gap between the two sides approached at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour, and by 9 o'clock, the distance between the two sides had narrowed to less than 200 kilometers.

But this speed and distance were not enough for the German fleet, and he also hoped to further reduce and delay the speed of the American fleet, and at about 10 o'clock, the night attack wave he was looking forward to had already pounced, and the bombs carried on it made everyone smile bitterly, all of which were American-made 1,000-pound bombs captured by the Germans in the Caribbean campaign, which could be used for German attack aircraft after modification.

"Sir, I have a suggestion if you can let the lightning strike force strike first? They're faster. ”

The S-boat could run up to 40 knots, and the two heavy mine-strike cruisers of Oi and Kitakami could run up to 36 knots, which was also very valuable for the German fleet, which was in dire need of time.

Machar pondered for a moment and agreed, but let the destroyers stay, and the battleships also needed destroyer protection.

"Thunderstrike detachment, assault at full speed, let the Americans taste the power of oxygen torpedoes!"

At about the same time, Mitchell also deployed night defense tactics, allowing the destroyers to prepare torpedoes to effectively deal with the attack of the German fleet in the event of a night battle.

The two sides began to go their separate ways with different ideas

ps: I went out to travel with my children today, because the plane was late, so the update was late, and it will be updated as much as possible every day for the next week, but the release time is not fixed, please bear with me for the inconvenience.

:,,gegegengxin!!