Chapter 244: Shadow of death

After the Sulu Sea battle, the remaining warships of the US Far East Fleet were very busy. It was so busy that they used civilian ships to carry the captured British and Japanese prisoners of war to Hawaii. So what are Shelley and Ma Jifen busy doing during this time? The first is naturally ship repair. The opponent is so fierce, even if the battleship that escaped after nine deaths will inevitably be skinned.

Although Germany has a shipyard capable of repairing battleships in the Far East, it lacks other materials and equipment. To put it bluntly, the maintenance equipment in the land of the Emperor Wilhelm is more like the maintenance provided by the later 4S shops, rather than the thorough maintenance like the garage. repair. It is possible to scrape the bottom of the ship, but if you want to repair the turret or replace the armor, you should wash and sleep.

  So, the remaining warships have been in a sub-healthy state. And because of the limited number of beds, the battleships need to come one by one. Even more tragic is that the Americans have insufficient human resources. The Japanese high-explosive bomb injured more than 30% of the surviving personnel. Counting those killed, missing, and injured, the manpower available on American warships is only about half of the standard equipment.

  And want to find a skilled boatman in such a remote place, the difficulty can be imagined. The Germans are not obligated to help you find a boatman! As for supplementing ammunition, let alone. The Americans did not expect that their fleet would be defeated so quickly. After the Sulu Sea battle, it took a full week for the U.S. Navy to gather all the supplies on the west coast and prepare to set off!

  How long is a week? It is not a simple 7*24 hours for the military! Take the Japanese navy for comparison. Three days after the Sulu Sea battle, the four Asama-class armored cruisers of the Japanese combined fleet have arrived in Hong Kong. Two of them entered the dock for maintenance and repairs, and the other two were simply supplied. On the fifth day, the two battleships Fuji and Yashima have entered the docks in Nagasaki for repair and maintenance. On the seventh day, the four Asama-class armored cruisers have returned to the blue and they are ready to go to Samoa... ..

  On the ninth day, Shiki Kawayama and Heihachi Togo had already left the Ryukyu Islands, arrived in Hong Kong on the twelfth day, and then headed to American Samoa with four cruisers that were in good condition! At this time, the prince had just talked to Roosevelt about the proposal for Germany to temporarily take over Samoa...

  Of course, all these responsibilities should be the affairs of the top Americans. According to the memories of Scheer and others, the remnants of the American Far East Fleet, such as Majifen and Shelly, are still very responsible. After the armored cruiser New York was roughly repaired, he rushed to Morro Bay to rescue the US Marines that had landed. And killed 2 Japanese camouflage reconnaissance ships on the road.

  The Columbia went to American Samoa to help local Americans transfer to German regions. After all, Ma Jifen and others are also worried that the Japanese will continue to attack southward. And the other two warships? Well, until the Japanese occupied American Samoa they could not get out of the shipyard.

As for the other Russian armored cruiser Bayan, since the end of the Sulu Sea battle, the Russians have received a telegram forwarded by the country, requesting that the armored cruiser stay in the German port honestly and release it when necessary. Arms are okay, anyway, don't mix things with the Americans anymore, the fighting is like this, and the Russians have obviously given up.

"We took the broken fleet in the Far East to save the children and property of the United States, while the big gangs in Washington were wrestling with insignificant things! Our number one enemy is Britain and Japan, and number two is the enemy. Those guys in the White House!" After the war, an article by Brigadier General Shelly caused an uproar in the United States.

  Sherry’s status as a front-line naval officer accused the U.S. Navy and the U.S. government of pre-war preparations, planning, strategic and tactical negligence, and the slow response after the Sulu Sea battle. Especially after exposing the Germans' willingness to help the U.S. government, but the U.S. government's hesitation, this article pushed the American evidence and public opinion to the pinnacle. And it further promotes the closer proximity between virtues. Of course, this is something later, so I won’t mention it for now.

  So the only two large warships in the current US fleet became transport ships. What surprised the Americans was not the Japanese coming, but the Japanese coming too fast! This is only a few days! Ma Jifen just withdrew the first batch of US Marines from the Philippines and rested in a German port for one night. As a result, when he got up the next day, Ma Jifen received a notice from the Germans that the Japanese fleet had appeared in the waters near Samoa. , The cruiser Columbia, which was performing a transportation mission, was sunk. In addition to more than 600 officers and soldiers on it, more than 700 civilians were killed together...

  "The Japanese actually occupied American Samoa?" Ma Jifen looked surprised. "What the Germans didn't do at the beginning, the Japanese did it so easily?"

"It's not easy? Samoa has a total of less than 3,000 square kilometers, and it is divided into two main islands and 7 small islands, half of which are ours in Germany and half of yours in the United States. How many people do you have on the island? The Japanese army of 4 cruisers and a brigade was directly pushed, and the whole process lasted less than 2 hours! One and a half hours was the landing of personnel..." Scheer said, the tone is so logical ~ www. wuxiaspot.com~ How can they move so fast? It’s only a few days from Japan to Samoa so far? "Shelly also rushed over at this time, he also didn't believe this information was true.

"You two! The British are the Japanese alliance and friendship? The gun specifications of the Japanese warships are exactly the same as those of the British. The Japanese fleet does not need to go back to the mainland for repairs. The 4 Asama-class armored cruisers went directly to Hong Kong for repairs. of."

"The damage you caused to the four armored cruisers of the Japanese fleet in the Sulu Sea naval battle is not known at all. To be honest, if you add coal and ammunition, you will be able to overturn your remaining battleships, with the help of the British. , The recovery speed is naturally fast." Scheer said.

   "Fuck, what shall we do now?" After Scheer left, Shelley and Ma Jifen began to discuss the future of the US Far East Fleet.

  The once powerful US fleet can now only mobilize three warships, one is the armored cruiser New York, the other is performing an evacuation mission outside, and the other is parked at the shipyard for maintenance. The Russian armored cruiser Bayan simply excuses that repairs have not been completed and are unwilling to attack. This matter has reached this level, and there is nothing to fight. A Japanese armored cruiser of the Asama class can easily kill all the remaining three warships. This is a shame!

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