Chapter 2709 Sweep 1
When the sun rose again from the east, the U.S. fleet had sailed at a speed of 18 knots for a whole night and was more than 200 kilometers deep into the Sulawesi Sea. When the sun rose again, the fleet was still sailing at a speed of 18 knots. It is possible to sail towards the target at a high speed. The core fleet was reduced into two groups, one was a battleship squadron and the other was an aircraft carrier squadron. They were located in the center of the entire fleet, and around them were escort formations composed of more than 30 destroyers. At a distance of 40 kilometers from this fleet, the remaining destroyers and cruisers formed a sparse ring warning area to clean up the surrounding sea for unexpected ships that may appear at any time!
Although there are no targets worthy of the U.S. main fleet in this sea area, the battle has begun. In order to prevent any suspicious ships from exposing the fleet's whereabouts and location, the Americans have more than 6 destroyer squads and 2 cruiser squadrons like a comb. Cleaning up the sea. In the following dozens of hours, the war had begun, and American artillery shells had fallen on Japanese and British ships!
"Send a signal to 5 and ask them to spread out and expand the control area!" Halsey, who had already served as the commander of the destroyer squadron, issued the order again. Two minutes later, the order was sent to the other party through a semaphore. Between the two destroyers, the American destroyer squadron that had already spread out in a fan shape became more scattered. They shuttled back and forth on the sea at a speed of more than 22 knots, searching for targets.
The God of War did not let Halsey wait too long. While eating breakfast, a sentry warned that a suspicious ship had been discovered. Halsey immediately threw away the bread and cans in his hands and walked to the bridge in a few steps. Following the direction pointed by his subordinate, he could see a black smoke column where the sea and the sky met in the distance.
"Tell the guys, the first battle of this battle will be fought by us! The remaining warships continue to search, and we will rush up and kill him!" Halsey said excitedly.
"Don't we identify the target first? If it is a French or other neutral ship, we will get into a lot of trouble." said an officer.
"It doesn't matter. The U.S. government will help us deal with these things. Rush forward. If it is a Japanese ship, we will kill it directly. If it is a neutral ship, we will control the ship." Halsey ordered.
Opposite was a slow-speed merchant ship. Halsey estimated that the speed was only about 6 knots per hour at most, as slow as a snail. The destroyer No. DD370 he was riding on rushed over at a high speed of 28 knots. With the sun behind him, Halsey made full use of the sunlight and the cover of the battleship painting. In addition, the destroyer itself burned oil and the smoke was not large, so he walked all the way. Come, almost undetected.
"Okay, it's a Japanese merchant ship, ready to turn on our communication jamming equipment. Go up and kill them with naval guns. Our torpedoes may be left for some big guys." Halsey put down the telescope in his hand and said, although There hasn't been a fight yet, but everything is set. Americans are very careful and have already considered that it is impossible to completely avoid ships on this journey.
Therefore, in order to prevent the other party from sending signals, interference equipment was specially set up for the merchant ship frequency band. When the jamming equipment starts working, civilian communication equipment within a radius of ten kilometers will be unusable.
When the Japanese finally discovered the rushing destroyer, it was too late. Electronic interference seemed to be unnecessary, because Halsey did not give them a chance to send a message! After approaching, the fierce firepower of three 120MM and two 75MM artillery pieces instantly engulfed this merchant ship with a displacement of only more than 3,000 tons. Accompanied by billowing smoke and leaping flames, the Japanese merchant ship sank to the bottom of the sea in just a few minutes. In order to prevent someone from obtaining information about the fleet by rescuing the Japanese crew after the fleet passed by, Halsey took no action. Without hesitation, I chose to eradicate the root cause!
Of course, along the way, the U.S. fleet did not just encounter some little guys. At noon the next day, a Japanese fleet escorted by destroyers swaggered from the northeast of the U.S. fleet's vanguard force. An hour ago, the U.S. Navy had discovered this fleet through a patrol seaplane. It is unclear whether the Japanese discovered the U.S. aircraft, because even if they discovered it, in their subconscious mind, the aircraft could appear in the Sulawesi Sea. It could only be a Japanese plane. So I don't care at all.
"6 transport ships, 1 destroyer and 2 gunboats." At this time, Fletcher Jr. was formulating a combat plan on the San Francisco, the flagship of the armored cruiser squadron. After all, this time they are attacking a Japanese transport fleet. It is not a big problem to kill all the transport ships. After all, these guys are too slow and have almost no resistance. The most troublesome are the destroyers and gunboats, which may take advantage of the high speed to escape. Drop or send the information via telegraph. In this case, the U.S. fleet must try its best to wipe out the opponent as quickly as possible!
"In 15 minutes, our large seaplanes will arrive. They will carry jamming equipment and weapons to suppress and track Japanese convoys. Two destroyer squadrons will be responsible for encircling and suppressing the transport fleet. We and another destroyer squadron will arrive Responsible for handling the escort warships." Little Fletcher ordered.
Immediately, the U.S. armored cruiser squadron and three destroyer squadrons began to form a formation. Fletcher Jr. and a destroyer squadron would block the Japanese from the front, while the other two destroyer squadrons would attack from the side and rear. A huge pliers was already in There is a faint opening on the sea, and all that is left is waiting for the moment to launch an attack!
Six twin-engine seaplanes arrived as scheduled. Due to the poor engines of aircraft in this era, it was almost impossible for a twin-engine seaplane to carry electronic equipment and sea attack weapons at the same time. Therefore, the six were divided into three A two-plane team, one of which carried electronic jamming equipment and antennas weighing several hundred kilograms. The other one carried small bombs and machine guns.
"We have arrived at the designated sea area and found the smoke column of the other party's ship, but cannot determine the specific location." The lookout of SP1 aircraft said to the captain.
"Then we will move higher and approach the target immediately after discovering it. Our airborne electronic jamming equipment has a limited effective range, so we must get closer. We will focus on the destroyer, and the remaining two groups will focus on the gunboat. After destroying them, we can use our discretion Attack the merchant ship!" Carl, the captain of SP1, ordered.
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