When completed, the Lexington-class battlecruiser was as high as the Americans had expected, with unusually high speed and heavy armament, and it was equipped with eight 18-inch MK2 naval guns mounted in twin loads on four turrets. The broadside main armor belt has been thickened to 356 mm, which makes it more defensive against enemies (but not against any of the main guns that might be mounted on a super battleship). The high speed of 35 knots of the "Lexington" class allows it to safely approach the enemy's capital ships and attack them with its own weapons.

A total of six Lexington-class battlecruisers consisted: USS Lexington, USS Saratoga, USS Constellation, USS Assault, USS Constitution, and USS Reader. The construction of the "Lexington" class battlecruiser was the largest in American history, and in 1921 the keel of the class was laid, but in the following time, due to the conference held in Washington to limit naval armaments, they were almost sentenced to death, because of the adoption of the Washington Treaty, all six ships were stopped in June 1922, according to the treaty, two of them were allowed to be converted into aircraft carriers, but for various reasons, the other four battle cruisers were not officially canceled. After the expiration of the Washington Treaty, in the face of the ship-building frenzy of the "Lexington" class, the construction plan of the "Lexington" class was re-proposed, and the original construction plan was improved in many ways, and all six ships of this class were completed in 1938. Among them, the "Lexington" and "Saratoga" were deployed in the Pacific Ocean and became the lead ships of the Pacific Fleet.

At this time, the battlecruiser "Lexington" was flying the flag of Vice Admiral Halsey on the mast, cleaving the waves and speeding towards the boundless ocean.

Halsey stared at the sea antenna in the distance for a long time, he wore dark sunglasses to block out the scorching sun, and the staff could not peek into his heart through his eyes, but only looked at him with apprehension from time to time.

At this time, Halsey's heart was full of pride.

Because he was victorious. He overcame himself, his cowardice, his laziness, his inferiority, his mercy to fate, and his adversity.

The USS Lexington was the largest warship he commanded in his lifetime. His long years in the Navy have made him accustomed to the sea, which is now familiar and familiar to him. As a newly promoted vice admiral, he ushered in the peak moment of his life, but at the same time faced the most difficult challenges of his life. He knew that he was now facing the main force of the entire Imperial Navy, and that there was little hope of victory, and defeat was the most painful. But he is a commander who can only face the facts and make the right choice. He knew that with the two new battlecruisers under his command alone, it would be extremely difficult to win the battle in front of him. But he, like Hannibal, Marlborough, Sherman, Wellington, and other famous generals of all ages, went to the battlefield to meet his own victory.

"Report! Radar detects enemy ships! Directly ahead, it is suspected that there are three battleships! An officer hurried to Halsey's side and reported to him.

"That means that their aircraft carrier is not far away." Halsey's face was filled with excitement, while his staff's faces began to turn white.

Halsey immediately noticed the mood of his subordinates, he turned around, took off his sunglasses, looked at everyone, and said in a deep voice: "We are fighting against an enemy with absolute superiority, so we can't give up the hope of surviving!" I want everyone to do their duty, because now we are the only force that can stop them! ”

After listening to Halsey's words, the staff members remained silent.

"If you want to leave, get off the boat now!" Halsey yelled, "I don't need cowards on my ship!" ”

Halsey's scolding sent a look of shame on many faces, while others held their heads up with a look of determination in their eyes.

"Well, since no one has disembarked, let's determine the battle target." Halsey looked at everyone, his expression slowed, he smiled, and said, "Our goal of battle is: to kill Benyan!" Kill a lot of Benke! Kill many, many people! ”

"Kill Ben Yan!" The officers roared like mad with him.

At this time, several planes suddenly appeared in the sky.

"It's my fighter." One officer looked up at the sky and said, "Probably after attacking Oahu." ”

"Maybe their bombers will come in a moment." Another officer said worriedly.

"Leave them alone! Our goal is ahead! All we have to do now is rush over! Halsey said, giving the order in a loud voice, "Full speed ahead!" ”

At about the same time, Nagumo Tadaichi also received an alert that "two enemy battleships had been found".

By this time, Nagumo Tadaichi had already sent reinforcements to Oahu, and when he heard the report, he was not surprised.

He had just received a report from the planes attacking the "Yorktown" that the "Yorktown" was only escorted by a few cruisers, and was not accompanied by large ships.

That is, the two battlecruisers of the Americans, either have already fled, or they are going to attack alone.

With Nagumo Tadashi's knowledge of the Americans, he would rather believe that the Americans wanted to commit suicide attacks.

Now that the attack aircraft group has been almost all dispatched, there are very few planes that can be used to attack enemy ships, but Nagumo Tadaichi is not worried.

Because at this time, his aircraft carrier was escorted by four powerful battleships. So when he learned that the Americans' only two remaining capital ships had appeared, he felt a sense of relief.

"Let the Americans taste our shells!" Nan Yunzhong looked out the window and said loudly.

At this time, Nagumo Tadaichi's heart was still full of longing for a steel duel with the cannon of the giant ship.

And he didn't think about what kind of trouble these two American battlecruisers would bring him.

At this moment, the sea antenna in the distance flashed a red light, followed by a thunderous sound.

Nagumo knew that it was a unique sight when the battleship's huge cannon was fired.

Halsey's "Memoirs of the Pacific War":

“…… At this time, the course of the 'Lexington' was pointing towards the main force of the fleet, and my original plan was that if they could not avoid the battle, we planned to take the initiative to dig them out and beat them up. But the report of the reconnaissance plane dispelled this idea, because I had already discovered us by this time, and sent battleships to escort aircraft carriers to meet us. ”

"To understand this upcoming huge naval battle, it is necessary for us to first clarify some details of the organization of the enemy's fleet. Nagumo Tadaichi's fleet was under Yamamoto Isoroku, and the battlefleet, although it was an escort for aircraft carriers, also seemed to be directly under Yamamoto Isoroku. And the troops that landed on Oahu do not seem to be under the command of Yamamoto Isoroku. If he could achieve the unity of military orders and share the same battlefield intelligence and control system, then this naval battle would be completely different. ”

"At 8:22 a.m., I made a broadcast on the ship in the highest pitch and gave the order to attack."

"At 8:26 a.m., I ordered Captain McCain to turn around and strike at the fleet.

"At 8:27 a.m., the Lexington opened fire, and two minutes later, the Saratoga followed suit."

"At 8:30, the enemy ships opened fire on us."

"The lads of the 'Lexington' were all good, and although the enemy's shells fell from the sky like meteorites and fell all around us, no one panicked, and all of them held their posts. I have to admit that my artillery fire was very accurate, but I would say that our gunners were even better, and we hit his own warship less than five minutes after the exchange of fire,...... A cloud of black smoke rose from the sea, a huge explosion was like an undersea volcano erupting, and many people shouted loudly, and we hit a battleship that we said we were! ”

"The reconnaissance plane said that we sank the largest and newest battleship in the book, but this was not the case, and later we learned that it was the battleship Kirishima of the company, a battleship with a displacement of 30,000 tons, with eight 356-mm guns, this is an old modernized battleship, after being hit by the 18-inch main gun of the 'Lexington', there was a violent explosion and it sank quickly, which was our first successful revenge on the fleet of the company. At this time, my light ships rushed up and tried to torpedo at us, but we were repelled by heavy artillery fire, and the observation post determined that three cruisers and one destroyer had been sunk, and that we had wounded many other ships. (The Americans' observations were inaccurate, in fact the short battle only sank the battleship Kirishima and damaged a number of ships of various types, forcing two heavy cruisers Myoko and Tone?) and two destroyers returned home. "As if stunned by us, the warship began to circle in circles, retreating first to the west and then to the east, as if it had received a death order from the emperor himself. …… It was only a year later that I learned that our speculation was not outrageous. At that time, the commander of the Fleet wanted to retreat, but received an order from the commander of the Combined Fleet and turned back. ”

"At the same time, my battleships reappeared, and they seemed to be so afraid of our 18-inch guns that they did not dare to engage us head-on, and I guessed that they were covering the evacuation of the aircraft carriers, so I ordered the 'Lexington' to continue to rush forward, engaging the enemy battleships and searching for the enemy aircraft carriers. At 9:43 a.m. we finally found the aircraft carrier fleet of the Japanese army, and I saw four aircraft carriers, three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and eight destroyers, located southwest of the 'Lexington,' at a speed of about 15 knots. We immediately launched an attack on this fleet, and at this time the three battleships of the Shipben were also concentrating their fire on us. ”

"The enemy's artillery fire was extremely fierce, and the 'Lexington' was hit three times in succession by the enemy's 16-inch main guns, and it burned, but the flames were quickly extinguished, and our combat effectiveness was not affected in the slightest, when Spruance sent a telegram from the 'Saratoga', suggesting that the 'Saratoga' should meet the battleship Zoben, and I led the 'Lexington' to attack the aircraft carrier, and I agreed. So, we went our separate ways. I couldn't help but rub my hands together at the thought of the prospect of sending enemy ships to the bottom of the sea one by one with artillery. ”

"None of us knew at the time that the enemy we were facing had 6 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 12 light cruisers and 22 destroyers, and the enemy's fleet was supposed to be our mortal enemy, but now their planes are gone, because they all went to Oahu, and the only force that could pose a threat to us was those battleships."

"With the Saratoga under cover, our operations against the Central Fleet became easy, as if a tiger had broken into a flock of sheep, and we launched a fierce attack. Successfully hit a light aircraft carrier of his own. It was the 'Wyvern', and I saw that the fire had spread to every corner of the warship, that its ammunition depot and fuel tank had been ignited, and that the aircraft carrier had begun to tilt into tilt with a violent explosion, and that I had noticed a strange phenomenon, and a small group of people who had reverently held a large portrait of the Emperor had ascended the dinghy, risking their own death in the flames. ”

"This aircraft carrier actually sank after only two of our shots. Seeing the destruction of this aircraft carrier, many people roared loudly, they waved their fists, and hugged each other warmly, I knew that they were expressing the pleasure of revenge in their hearts in this way. ”

"At the same time that the 'Lexington' sank the 'Wyvern', the 'Saratoga' also achieved significant successes, and the communications officer reported that they had sunk another battleship, but later we learned that it was the 'Hiei', which was the same class as the 'Kirishima' that we sank, and I have to say that these old battleships of mine are really vulnerable in front of our 18-inch cannons."

"After the 'Wyvern' was hit by us, the aircraft carriers began to flee, and several heavy cruisers tried to cover them, and it must be said that these heavy cruisers fought very tenaciously, and the shells they fired hit the 'Lexington' several times, and although the armor of the 'Lexington' resisted the blow, it caused a lot of casualties to our heroic officers and men." The captain of the Lexington' was Captain William? Braque, who served as my chief of operations before and after the war. He was about to leave the Lexington, and his successor, John? Admiral Hoskins has already taken to the ship. At this time, he also commanded the battle on the ship. The shell of the heavy cruiser that hit the 'Lexington' nearly killed Colonel Hoskins. He suffered a serious injury to his foot and had to be amputated immediately on the ship. After the amputation, Hoskins was mounted on a stretcher and carried to the side of the ship to avoid gunfire through the ship's blazing flames. While waiting, he was able to smile and salute me, who came to visit him at the same time, and asked with a smile: 'Can I get permission from your Excellency to leave the ship?' ’”

"I said, 'I'm sorry to have taken you to this dangerous place and caused you to be so badly injured.'"

Hoskins shook his head and said with a smile that he hoped that one day, with a prosthetic leg, would be able to command a warship as good as the Lexington, because he was "one leg" ahead of any other applicant. I asked him what that meant, and he said that if the emergency siren had been pulled on the night of the game and the speed of the command position, he would have been faster than all of them, because at least one foot was already ready-to-wear shoes and socks. We all laughed out loud when we heard his answer. ”

"The discovery of the main aircraft carrier of the Yue Army confirms my point of view: Xiao Yuben went all out. But I don't want to wait for the prophecy to be confirmed, what I need is to fight! I inspected it for a while and then returned to the bridge, and at this time I said that all the surviving superstructures of the Central Fleet were seriously damaged, especially the turrets and fire control systems were seriously damaged, and it was impossible to strike at us in a decisive manner, and we could have destroyed them all, but my target was the enemy's aircraft carriers, and if we took out these aircraft carriers, it would be equivalent to reversing the defeat, and we would not have to worry about these threats from the sea in future operations. ”

"It was very difficult for me to make the decision to abandon the support of the defenders of Wake Island and go all out to attack the enemy's carrier formation, but in retrospect, if I had been in the same situation and had the same information at the time, I would have made the same decision."

"I walked into the command room, pointed to the position of the aircraft carrier formation on the map, and said, let's go here, Mick. It was 10:25 a.m., and soon we caught them. The radar first spotted a large aircraft carrier, and I ordered to take up positions in front of the enemy ship and bombard the enemy ship with its main guns. ”

"At 10:50 a.m. I observed a terrible explosion in the distance, and a few moments later I received a report that a large enemy aircraft carrier had sunk after a large explosion. Later I learned that it was the 'Canglong'. ”

"The radar observed 2 more enemy aircraft carriers and a light cruiser, and the enemy was speeding up to 25 knots, and by this time we had reduced our speed to 25 knots. If the enemy maintains its current speed and course, it will escape from the range of our naval guns before noon. ”

"Next, I'm going to start recounting the unbearable part, and to this day, this memory still aches faintly. I'd better take an excerpt from my battle account to recreate the story in order. ”

"At 11:18 a.m. I received a telegram from the 'Saratoga': I am engaged with enemy aircraft. I felt a little confused when I received the telegram. Could it be that she is engaged with an enemy aircraft carrier? ”

(To be continued)