It seems that God is on our side this time. The weather will be sunny tonight and the moon will shine brightly. Order, according to the scheduled plan, the First Armored Cruiser Detachment, the First Battleship Detachment and the Attached Fleet will set off immediately. Other battleships will cover the aircraft carrier detachment into the scheduled waters waiting for our return. Looking at the gradually darkening sky, Sims said.

Follow your order. Majiphin said, and he also brought Sims a photo of his last long-range reconnaissance. The Japanese finally noticed our actions. They spent about a day evacuating the fleet of Ragan Island, which reduced our profits, and they seemed to have strengthened the air defense force in the port area. We had 4 reconnaissance planes shot down by the Japanese Air Force.

Okay, let’s not talk about this, it’s a pity for the Japanese ships to run away, but this is just a little bit of a matter of intercepting more planes. They cannot pose a threat to us at night, but during the day, we evacuate. Tell us the key points, such as the firepower arrangements of our targets and the response to possible threats. Sims said.

The Japanese almost inherited the oil industry of the Dutch in Taragen Island and expanded it on the original basis. The main oil-producing area of ​​Taragen Island is in the southwest of the island, and then the Japanese built refineries and oil depots nearby here. Among them, the refineries are in the area close to the inland and are on the edge of the range of our naval guns. In order to destroy this place as much as possible, we need to use special long-range shells. The oil depot is on the beach and handed over to the cruiser. Majifen said.

The refinery is not far from the sea. If our fleet shelling array can be further ahead, just use ordinary high-explosive bombs. Sims said.

There will be some risks. Look here. In fact, the place where our fleet is deploying is the Qianhai area between Taragen Island and Kalimantan Island. There are many shallows here that are not suitable for large fleet operations. Moreover, our planes found that the Japanese were deploying mines and a large number of torpedo boats. If they are too close, both mines and torpedo boats will pose a certain threat to us. So we must be outside this line. In addition, after studying the hydrological data provided by the Dutch, my staff and I also believed that it is reasonable to be appropriate and farther away. Majifen said.

Some areas of the oil field are also far away, so we also need to use the equipped ultra-long-range shells, so we allocated all long-range targets. The port is closest to us, and there are not too expensive materials except for the oil depot and some pipeline shore facilities, so we can allocate the strike mission to General Fletcher's heavy cruiser detachment and destroyer detachment. In this way, we can save some ammunition. Sims said.

Also, are our seaplanes ready? Divide the seaplanes into two groups, one to assist the main ship to shoot, and the other to assist in searching the Japanese torpedo boats. These little guys are very annoying in the narrow sea. Sims thought for a while and added.

It takes at least 6 hours to arrive at the place where the gun can fire from the final attack position. In terms of time calculation, the Americans still had some deviations. The long-term high-speed navigation caused the power systems of some warships to overheat, so in the second half of the trip, the speed of the US Navy was actually slower than the scheduled speed. This eventually directly squeezed the time the US Navy could use for attack. After all, the Americans had to leave before dawn, otherwise if they could not escape the attack range of Japan's land-based aviation forces, a naval and air war would inevitably be inevitable.

Therefore, in the last period of time, the Americans optimized their attack plans as much as possible and assigned tasks to each battleship. When it was approaching the early morning, the American fleet led by Sims finally saw the Dalagen Island rising and falling in the moonlight. With a command, dozens of various seaplanes took off from the airplane carriers, and the first-arriving destroyers had already begun to cover the minesweeper ships to clear the waterway ahead. The US fleet decided to get closer. Before the large-caliber guns of the American battleship landed on Dalagen Island, the sea combat suddenly broke out!

Ten destroyers lined up in 5 formations and began to sweep away the mines in designated sea areas. There are two main types of Japanese mines. One is floating mines, which are just thrown down directly. The thunder body floats on the water surface and is easy to deploy and sweep away. After discovering with a searchlight, you can shoot with a light weapon.

The other is anchor mine. The mine is fixed to the seabed with anchors. Some mines and thunder bodies are completely under the sea water. When the ship attacks from above, it causes changes in the water flow. This change will stimulate the electro-hydraulic pressure fuse in the mine and detonate the mine. The latter is difficult to deploy, generally to defend against submarines. The number of mines was not deployed before, but it is difficult to sweep. The formation of destroyers needs to carry a minesweeping saw to cut the mine anchor chain and wait for the mine to float up before destroying it.

Because it is minesweeping, the route must be fixed. At the same time, in order to find mines floating on the water, the destroyers responsible for minesweeping missions must also be fully lit. So, in this night, minesweeping destroyers are as conspicuous as huge lights. Now the problem is, in this case, who do the Japanese attack you if they don’t hit?

A small team of torpedo boats quietly slipped in along the edge of the coastline. They made full use of the cover of the island background and the advantages of their ship's shallow draft, quietly arrived about 3,000 meters away from the US minesweeping and destroyers team. They waited quietly, like a killer hidden in the dark, either without taking action. Once they took action, it would be fatal!

Well, we have reached the edge and it’s time to turn. As the signal lights on the leading destroyer lighted up, minesweeping teams began to turn the bow. However, at this moment, when the destroyer team had some chaos due to the change of formation, and at the same time, the wide side of the destroyer was exposed to the attack of the torpedo boat, the Japanese decisively launched an attack!

The torpedo boat that was running at idle speed began to accelerate and rushed towards the US destroyer in the distance. At this time, the destroyer carrying out the minesweeping mission was not fast, and the Japanese infiltration was very in place. The closest to the US Navy was even only 2,100 meters! In other words, this torpedo boat can only accumulate around 1,500 meters, and 1,500 meters is only a minute for a torpedo boat with a maximum speed of more than 35 knots!
Chapter completed!