To be honest, although camouflage cruisers and armed merchant ships were not uncommon during the war, and even more than once a battle between armed merchant ships was born in the war, and there were many things that armed merchant ships killed destroyers, but it was all in the two major powers of Britain and Germany. In Japan, a poor country, armed cruisers with such firepower were really rare. After all, national strength was limited.

"It seems that the supplies of this fleet are more important, otherwise the Japanese would not have arranged such a guy." Fletcher said. Destroyers and gunboats are more for dealing with single submarines. If they are wolves, even if they are floating on the water to engage in artillery battles, the Japanese escort destroyer and two gunboats cannot be defeated, so the Japanese arranged this armed merchant ship with strong firepower, but this time, this armed merchant ship encountered the American new armored cruiser!

Fletcher's main gun fired again, and thick flames gushed out of the 1o-inch gun mouth. The shells weighing more than 2o kilograms roared into the distance. When the heavy artillery fired, everything was confirmed. The third round of half-volleys, a 1o-inch gun shell accurately hit the target's ship's position. Half the bow was blown into pieces by a huge explosion force, as if it was cut! One minute later, the American warship hit again, and a 1o-inch high explosive bomb flew into the artillery corridor on the side of the armed merchant ship, and then caused a series of explosions to almost blow up one deck of the ship! I have to say that although the armed forces are very good, they are just modified by a merchant ship, and there are huge loopholes in terms of ammunition transport, fire prevention, etc.&1t;i>&1t;/i>

So, everything left was very simple. After the armored cruiser of the San Francisco killed the thorn, the remaining battle was easy and pleasant. The group of American destroyers took less than 30 minutes to clean up all the Japanese ships. When the Americans left, there were only a pile of fragments and floating corpses left on the sea, as well as the sharks that came after smelling the blood!

"Today is a good day, we will win!" Fletcher Jr. wrote in his diary.

No ship escaped, no living person was missed, and even a code was not released. Theoretically, Fletcher completed the sweeping mission well this time. But what do you say about some things? It doesn't mean that you are perfect on the battlefield, and you will not be exposed in the intelligence! And this time it is like this! The sudden exposure of this transport fleet aroused the Japanese's high alert!&1t;i>&1t;/i>

"Is there no news about the T15 transport fleet?" In the west of Taragen Island, where the Japanese Kalimantan Island borders Sarawak, there is an intelligence center and aviation command belonging to the Japanese Navy. The former Royal Navy Colonel Halls was here. At the beginning, he originally belonged to the Royal Navy Air Force, and his main research directions were aviation anti-submarine and sea attacks. In this transport fleet numbered T15, a merchant ship carried weapons and arms transported from Japan to New Guinea Island, so it was highly valued.

For this important fleet, the Japanese Navy implemented a timely reporting system. Every 3 hours, the fleet will issue a number to realize the predetermined number to report safety. However, this time, the predetermined time has passed, and even the next time is about to arrive, but the result is still no news! What is even more worrying is that the radio station called the t15 transport fleet many times but did not reply, and tried all the frequency bands!&1t;i>&1t;/i>

"What happened." Colonel Halls said in his heart. There were 9 ships in total. Three of them could contact him. If he encountered an American submarine and was attacked, then even if one ship was sunk, then the other ships could send signals. There is no reason not to reply until now, and the call signs he issued were like a rock sinking to the sea. So even though he was unwilling to believe it, Colonel Halls could only come to one conclusion, that is, the entire fleet was destroyed!

"How is that possible? One escort destroyer, two gunboats, and a large armed merchant ship equipped with at least 6 or more 1oommm artillery. Even if it is ambushed by a wolf pack, it is impossible to be killed. Moreover, it is still daytime, and the wolf pack is more inclined to act at night. If the entire fleet can be destroyed in an instant, and even the distress signal is not even released, then this fleet will be too terrifying." Colonel Halls said, touching his chin. He looked through other information a little irritatedly. At this moment, a large-scale American fleet appeared near the Talao Islands and attracted his attention.&1t;i>&1t;/i>

"If the fleet's target is not the Philippines or New Guinea, but enters the Sulawesi Sea, then things will be right." Colonel Halls suddenly realized and thought of the possibility that was closest to the facts! That is, the American fleet came to the Sulawesi Sea and was preparing to find a target to take a bite!

"But the target will definitely not be the merchant fleet." Colonel Halls said affirmatively after closing the document. As a quasi-high-level officer of the Royal Navy, he naturally knew what a fleet could be called "sized", and also knew what the lower limit of the goal needed to use this power. If the target is too low, it would be a waste. This is what anti-aircraft guns hit mosquitoes!

"So what's the target? As for sending a fleet of such a large size to travel a very risky expedition across such a long distance?" Colonel Halls thought, while scanning the charts on the wall with his eyes. At the heaviest, his eyes stopped at a place called Taragan Island!

"Oil! Yes, it must be oil! Only oil fields and refining facilities are the most valuable. It can even be said that the most valuable thing in the entire Kalimantan Island is the oil fields! Especially the coastal oil fields with obvious location advantages!" Colonel Halls felt that he had found the key to the problem!

"The Americans' goal is to hit Lagan Island and the oil fields above!" The colonel walked a few steps to the chart and began to calculate the possible location of the American fleet!

"If nothing unexpected happens, the T15 transport fleet should be in this position now." The Colonel drew a red circle on the chart as a mark. "If it is assumed that the fleet has just been sunk, then the position of the US fleet should be here too. Then refer to the location of the seaplane attack in the Talaw Islands before..." After a while, Colonel Halls threw the pencil on the table because he found an unexplained problem!
Chapter completed!