.September 4, 1928, southeastern waters of Australia.

Because of its location in the southern hemisphere, the season here is exactly the opposite of Japan. When Tokyo is about to enter autumn, winter here is about to end. The temperature on the sea is around 18 degrees, which is a very comfortable time of the year.

However, today, there are cloudy clouds near the Bass Strait. The darkness and thick clouds make people feel depressed. The strong wind makes the waves on the sea surface bigger and bigger. A seaplane sways in the wind and keeps lowering the height. Then it starts to touch the irritable sea surface. After a few jumps, it finally lands on the sea surface and quickly "swim" to a warship not far away with its own power.

On the mast of the warship, sixteen striking sun flags were scattered in the wind. About 500 yards away, the other one was gray all over the body, and the body was even more majestic. The warship with a chrysanthemum badge was also hung with this flag that countless people hated, but it had a seemingly very loyal name: the saddle horse.

Since Nagato, Hanoi, Hiei and other ships were transferred back to their local waters due to tensions in the Far East, the main battleships of the 4th Japanese Navy Team that remained in Oceania were the only quasi-fair-fair-class battleships of the Japanese Navy, and the so-called cruise warships of the Japanese Navy, the Atsuma and Ibuki. There are also many heavy cruisers, old-style armored cruisers, destroyers, gunboats and patrol boats. Among them, the Kashima is usually in

In the Coral Sea, the "Ibu" is active in the waters west of Australia, and the "Onma" and its marches "Tamo" are guarding and patrolling in the waters east of the Bass Strait. These three are the only way for outside ships to go to Australia. As for the other light and heavy cruisers and light ships of the Japanese army, most of them are active in the coastal waters of Australia, and ports such as Mount Moloy, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin are all designated by the Japanese army as special ports for Japanese ships.

When the light cruiser of the Tama lifted the seaplane, the sea was getting stronger and stronger, and a storm was coming. The signal light of the "Sanma" flashed, but the order issued was not to return to the port to shelter the wind, but to continue patrolling eastward!

The commander of the two-ship guard patrol formation, Major General Okura, issued such an order because since Japan occupied Australia in exile, the new government is still trying every means to transport arms and supplies to Australia to support underground resistance organizations and guerrillas to continue fighting against the Japanese occupation forces. In order to cross the Japanese Navy's maritime blockade, Australia and the new government's ships often use the dark and stormy weather to sail. Since Australia has an extremely long coast, even if the Japanese Navy sends all ships, it is impossible to completely block the entire coastline. Therefore, this game of cat and mouse can only be carried out by strengthening mobile patrol and coastal alert.

Half an hour later, raindrops as big as beans began to invade the sea. The strong wind led to terrifying waves and twisted the world on the sea. Thousands of tons of ships were easily lifted up and put down by the waves. Large swaths of waves hit the steel hull. In this way, the "Sanma" and "Tama" sailed towards the depths of the storm, one big, one small, one behind.

As a first-class cruiser warship of Japan - the standing-wave class, the "Stan Horse" class started construction in 1905 and was put into service in 1911. It has a displacement of 15,000 tons, which is 1,600 tons heavier than the Tsukubo class. It is equipped with 2 dual-mounted 305mm guns and 4 dual-mounted 203mm guns, with a maximum speed of 21 knots. It is just as a "cruising warship" that is determined to be the same as the battle cruiser. 100-180mm waterline armor, 125

- The 80mm turret armor and 200mm Command Tower armor appear too weak. The British Invincible Class Battlecruiser of the same level in the same class is the best example. It has 100-150mm waterline armor, 180mm turret armor and 250mm Command Tower armor in the naval battle, which was easily penetrated and detonated by the 280mm armor-piercing bomb of the German Battle Cruiser, which shows its weak defense.

However, since Japan invaded Australia, the "Sonma" has not encountered a decent opponent. In the early stage, it only shelled Australian coastal targets, and then blocked the armed merchant ships in Australia, and achieved quite good results. It is precisely because of these reasons that the Japanese Navy was relieved to leave these warships that were obviously unable to keep up with the times in Oceania, and transferred the best main ships back to their homeland one by one to "confront" the German Pacific Fleet.

As the diplomatic negotiations between Germany and Japan on land-use land officially began, the situation in the Far East was eased, and this atmosphere seemed to spread quickly to the Japanese Ocean State Expeditionary Force and the 4th Navy Team stationed in Australia. In the command tower of the "Onma", the officers talked and laughed. Even their always-stifled captain Major General Kokura participated from time to time. Although the defense and speed of the cruise warships designed with the guiding ideology of "fast guerrilla force" seemed to be behind the times, their navigation performance was still excellent. There were winds and rains outside, and the bumps on the ship were not as severe as people imagined.

In contrast, the officers and soldiers on the Tama ship were not so happy. The light cruiser launched in 1921 had a displacement of 5,800 tons, continuing the design of Japan's light patrols' historical high-speed lightning strike. It has an amazing speed of 36 knots and a good quadruple 610mm torpedo tube. The naval gun only has 7 140mm guns, 2 127mm anti-aircraft guns and some 25mm anti-aircraft guns, and its defense is relatively weak.

At this time in the storm area, another fleet was sailing in a completely opposite direction from the Japanese fleet. In terms of scale, this fleet consisting of 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 2 destroyers and 4 cargo ships was far stronger than that of the Japanese fleet, but the troops from officers to sailors were vigilant and even a little nervous.

The eight ships formed an almost circular formation, two cruisers separated from the front left and front right, two destroyers were in the rear left and rear right, and two freighters were protected in the middle of the fleet. Although these ships had different shapes and appearances, the long-lost six-star flags were hung on the masts. Since Australia left the Commonwealth, the red and white rice characters originally located in the upper left corner were cancelled, and the remaining patterns formed the new flag of the independent Australian Federation.

"General, the 'Kangaroo' sends a signal that the leakage at the bilge has been controlled and the speed can continue to be maintained at 16 knots!"

In the command tower of the only heavy cruiser in the fleet, the officer wearing a dome-white naval cap reported to his captain, Lieutenant General White, the commander of the fleet.

"Very good, let them completely fix the loopholes as soon as possible. I don't want any accidents to happen when returning!" General White, about 50, began to immigrate to Canada since his father began to immigrate to Canada. White himself served in the Australian Navy for a long time. He went to the UK with the Australian fleet and participated in the Battle of England and Germany. After giving the order, he once again used a telescope to observe the sea surface in his field of vision. At this time, the visual distance on the sea surface was very limited, which could cover the fleet, but the disadvantage was that it slowed down the navigation speed of the ship, and once it was discovered by the enemy, it was difficult to escape by evasion.

Although this is not the first time that the new government sent ships into the oceans of Oceania after it went into exile in Britain, it is definitely the largest, because the ones used to transport supplies were either fast ships, high-speed destroyers or submarines, and such surface fleets had never been organized to cross the Japanese blockade line. The reason why the new exiled government made such a bold move was that the Japanese army recently carried out a large-scale sweep operation in Australia. Although two Japanese divisions were transferred back to the mainland, the Japanese army joined India this time

The colonial army, with a total force of more than 90,000 people involved in the sweep, faced a serious threat to Australian underground resistance organizations and guerrillas, and urgently needed assistance with arms and material resources. What made the Australian and the new exile government feel relieved was that Germany's operations in the Far East held back a large number of Japanese navy ships. There were unprecedented few Japanese warships on the coast of Australia. On this side of the Bass Strait, there were only the "Onma", the "Tamo", one large and one fast, two motorized ships, a small number of destroyers and gunboats.

The most important point is that the new government in Australia and the new exile reorganized the land navy with the help of the British Kingdom and Germany, and although the goal of this operation was to transport supplies to a small fishing port in the Gulf of Greater Australia as much as possible without being discovered by Japanese warships, the fleet was also ready to have a head-on conflict with Japanese warships.

Sure enough, at 2:10 pm, the lookout soldiers on the Australian ship found two unidentified ships on the sea in the front right. The other party quickly sent a signal to inquire about their identity. The Australian flagship "Melbourne" replied that it was the second fleet of the Chilean Navy and was practicing ocean navigation. Since both sides were sailing on the high seas, the other party did not immediately see through the identity of the Australian fleet, but one of them was heading here at high speed.

At 2:12, General White, commander of the Australian fleet, issued an order to prepare for combat, and the light cruiser "Gibson" quickly moved closer to the flagship. Two destroyers "Point York" and "Freedom" covered four merchant ships 20 degrees southwest and quickly sailed deep into the rain.

At 2:15, the Japanese ship "Tamo" sent another signal, asking the Australian ship's name and commander's name and military rank. The Australian ship immediately used a pseudonym to make excuses, and ordered the Australian flag on the mast to lower the Chilean flag. The four triple-mounted 50-diameter 203mm naval guns of the "Melbourne" quietly aimed at the target. The two dual-mounted 152mm front main guns and two quad-mounted 304mm torpedo tubes of the "Gibson" were also ready to open fire at any time.

Perhaps it was because they saw that the two Australian cruisers were German-made warships and the relationship between Chile and Germany was well-known and close. After the Australian ship reported the ship's name and commander information, the Japanese ship was silent for a while. The distance with the two Australian ships was unknowingly closer to less than 1,500 yards. At this distance, the Japanese light cruiser was vulnerable to Krupp's 203mm naval guns and armor-piercing shells. However, the Japanese ship obviously had some concerns, so they did not continue to get closer, but turned 45 degrees and became parallel to the "Melbourne". At this time, another Japanese ship, the "Sanma", was sailing in the rain curtain 4,000 yards away.

In the command tower of the "Santhema", Major General Kokura's deputy was busy flirting with a thick copy of information, which were full of line diagrams and general introductions of naval warships from various countries. Although the former naval powers, Britain, the United States and Russia have all declined, there are still nearly a hundred types of cruisers in various countries in service at this time. The German Navy alone has 5 heavy cruisers, 9 light cruisers and 5 export cruisers. Moreover, there are some differences in appearance between cruisers of the same level. It is precisely because of these reasons that the information in the hands of this Japanese officer is so thick.

"Finished! Found!" Okura's deputy said loudly with relief, and Major General Okura and the officers around him surrounded him, "The double chimney separated by 18 meters, the 203mm turret with a turret of 17.4 meters in front bridge, and the 11.8 meters in rear bridge... That's right, it's it! Fist-class combat cruiser!"

Hearing this name, the officers took a breath of air conditioning. They had already heard of the daimyo of this combat cruiser. Because the Japanese Navy spent 3 million marks last spring, which is more than 12 million yen to order a ship from the Royal German Shipyard, but the German side has not delivered it yet. According to the evaluation of Jisaburo Ozawa, who had visited the sample ship, this so-called combat cruiser has advanced design structure and equipment, especially the advantages of the triple Krupp 50-diameter 203mm naval gun, which is powerful, has high firing speed, and good accuracy. In addition, the German Navy has always been proud of the unified shooting command system and optical aiming equipment for the whole ship. Even ships with larger caliber naval guns must be very careful when facing such dangerous guys.

"The displacement is 1.45 million tons, the maximum speed is 35 knots, the main armor belt of the waterline is 220 mm, the turret armor is 250 mm, and the commander tower armor is 250 mm. It uses high-quality steel and large-scale welding technology. It is expected that the actual defense will be more than 20% higher than that of warships using ordinary steel..." After listening to the deputy's interpretation, Major General Kokura couldn't help but raise his telescope and look at the mast of the mast of the mast of the syllable. He was thinking that it seemed that the Germans had never sold this kind of cruiser to Chile, but suddenly found that the Chilean flag on the mast of the warship and its martyrs had been lowered at some point, and a blue-bottomed flag was slowly rising. Major General Kokura had just opened his mouth, and before the first syllable was emitted, he saw a fatal flame flashing with the other party's muzzle!

The rumbling cannon sounded only a few seconds later to the "Sanma". At this time, Okura and his officers were witnessing their martyr "Tama" quickly sank to the bottom of the sea in a painful explosion. With just one round of artillery, the Japanese officers saw the power of the Australian ship. Behind the powerful combat power was the advanced shipbuilding technology of the Germans, and it was a warship without radar!
Chapter completed!