Chapter 527: It’s a Trap!
The Imperial Japanese Navy had set its sight on the Bismarck Sea, baited by a small flotilla consisting of a single German Cruiser, as well as a flank of three destroyers escorting it.
These ships were smaller, leaner and faster than their Japanese counterparts, which were primarily Hyūga-class battleships and Kongō-class battlecruisers.
Shots rang throughout the chase, but most missed their targets horrifically. Meanwhile, the Japanese Admiral in charge of the fleet continued to bark his orders at the sailors beneath his command.
"Do you not have eyes? They’re getting away! Aim, you sons of foreign whores!"
The Japanese sailors, used to the abuse within their command structure yet fanatically loyal, tried their best to obey.
But launching an attack on the vertical profile of agile German cruisers was easier said than done. Especially when these ships darted between islands with seemingly preternatural awareness.
What the Admiral failed to realize was that this was not a rout.
It was a trap.
As the Japanese fleet rounded a narrow strait between two small islands, they crossed a line into German kill-zone doctrine—a doctrine born from the lessons of the Great War, refined through a decade of technological supremacy.
On both sides of the strait, the jungle-covered hills revealed their true purpose: fortified artillery nests. Coastal guns, lined up with chilling precision, adjusted in unison. The targeting solutions had already been calculated.
Germany no longer relied on dumb range tables or human estimators.
Thanks to Bruno’s decades-long investment in fire-control innovation, each artillery position was networked into a regional command node via encrypted radio signals.