Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 40: Royal Navy (Part 2)

　　 Forbes did not connect the shelling in front of him with the smoke from the German position in front. He couldn't believe that the dense fire was shot from the German land. Because the intelligence said that the German artillery hit more than 18,000 meters, and these destroyers were at least more than 19,000 meters offshore, the German artillery could not hit them anyway.

　　 The admiral determined that the shelling must have come from the sea. When Forbes thought about this, he couldn't help but feel groggy. If German warships really came here, then the problem would be serious. If it is in other waters, he doesn't care even if the entire German fleet comes in front of him. Now there are few battleships in Germany that are opponents of his main fleet. But now my fleet is trapped in this narrow channel, and it is difficult to even change its course. If it is bombarded by the German fleet, I can only move in one direction like a target, telling me how to fight against the elite German warships.

　　"Has the radar room reported? Did you find German warships near us? Let the defender's destroyers expand the search range, and the right-wing destroyers should pay attention to searching the sea surface, so that the injured destroyers should report their damage immediately. The ships stopped. Shelling, lowering the mobile lifeboats, and starting rescues for the damaged ships. The entire fleet lifts anchors, the turbines are on standby, and are ready to maneuver orbit to avoid navigation. The radars and observation posts of each ship are doing their best to search for the source of the shelling. Why has the radar room not reported yet." Forbes was anxious. Yelled.

　　"General, the radar room reported that there were no suspicious targets near us and no enemy ships near us. I think the shelling came from the shore?"

　　 "Impossible. Their artillery can't hit that far... Could it be that... the Germans have fortress guns?" Forbes hurriedly rushed to the platform by the bridge and set up a telescope towards the nearest one. Looking at the destroyer that was billowing black smoke.

　　 That is the destroyer leader "Somali" of the 11th Destroyer Squadron. Now that warship has been completely paralyzed, she is now leaning and floating on the sea more than 500 meters away from the "Nelson". The entire rear deck of the ship is shrouded in thick black smoke and raging fire. Her first building has also collapsed, and the upper half of the bridge has been blown up. It is impossible for anyone to survive there. The Admiral can’t help but mourn for Captain Nicholson, who was commanding the bridge at the time. He is a Royal Navy lieutenant. Some destroyer experts.

　　 The C turret in front of the bridge has disappeared without a trace, and only a pile of twisted turret platform remains still smoking there. The crew were running around on the deck in a panic, the damage management team was holding a water dragon and desperately spraying water towards the aft deck, but no one could see that the destroyer was not saved. With a loud noise, a huge ball of fire rose from the rear deck of the "Somali", and the entire rear half of the destroyer was blown to pieces in front of Admiral Forbes.

　　 Steel plate fragments and parts and equipment flew away like shotguns. Even the Nelson, which was more than 500 meters away, was affected. Many parts and fragments fell from the sky and hit the deck of the flagship, but fortunately, no one was injured.

　　"Not a fortress cannon."

　　 The admiral looked sadly at the rapidly sinking destroyer leader. The crew members were jumping into the sea scramblingly, and the lifeguard put down by the USS Nelson was driving towards the sailors struggling in the sea. go with.

　　"It's not a fortress gun." The admiral once again said affirmatively: "If they were bombarded by a fortress gun, the ship would have been broken into two pieces."

　　 He looked at the other destroyers that had been shot, and now those destroyers were lying crookedly on the sea, still burning and exploding. It was only a matter of time before their sinking.

　　"We lost four tribes and two F-class ships, but now we don’t even know what sank them."

　　"Admiral, the small team reported that they were not shelled. This proves that the gunfire in front was indeed from the German land artillery. They have artillery with such a range! We were fooled!" Mills said with the phone. Shouted at Forbes from the bridge.

　　 Forbes heard the captain's report and felt his eyes go dark. Those cunning Germans, those stupid intelligence agents. Now his warship was pushed to the edge of the cliff by wrong information. If the Germans really had long-range artillery, then his fleet would only have two ways to go. The first is to shoot at the German artillery group on the shore and find a way to suppress the opponent’s firepower. The consequences of doing so are difficult to predict, and it is likely to pay a great price. These warships are the elite of the Royal Navy. All are unacceptable.

　　 On the second road, I left this dangerous waterway immediately before I was bombarded by a German cannon like a duck in a bucket. That meant that I had to throw those boats to the Germans. In order to save themselves in the battle, abandon the civilian ships, abandon this rescue operation, the honor of the Royal Navy will be lost, and the entire navy will be scolded by the British people. This is an absolutely unacceptable result for Royal Navy officers who regard honor as their life.

　　Admiral Forbes decided to choose the first way. One’s own warships must not escape due to the shelling of those army artillery pieces. No matter how severe the situation is and the combat conditions are harsh, the fleet should continue to fight the enemy to the end, at least until the boats return to a safe area. Consider retreating.

　　 "Captain Mills! Order all warships to start moving the ships, and then prepare to start artillery battles with the German Army artillery, and calculate the coordinates of those artillery positions. After five minutes, start salvos."

　　 "Yes, General."

　　 "The German cannons are firing again!" A lookout hand lowered his binoculars and pointed in the direction of the German position.

　　Admiral Forbes hurriedly ran to the porthole, picked up the telescope and looked at the German position. The smoke from this bombardment was thicker and thicker than the previous one, and it did not rise from the original position. This time the smoke was farther behind than the previous one.

　　"Do the Germans have two artillery positions? Well, let them be exposed one by one. Order the battlecruiser squadron to aim at this new German artillery position, and other warships to aim at the previous German artillery position. Prepare. Suppress shooting. Why don’t you move the ship?"

　　"General, the turbine is already at full speed, and now we are preparing to move forward."

　　 "Boom..." Suddenly a huge water column rose more than fifty meters to the left of the battleship.

　　 "Oh my god, this is the fortress cannon! They really have the fortress cannon. Order the fleet to move forward at full speed!"

　　Admiral Forbes will tell from the size of the water column that the shell is at least 300mm. The Germans possessed more than 300mm heavy artillery, which made General Forbes' heart cold. The battleship that wants to shoot at the fortress gun is stupid. It can easily wound or sink the battleship. What's more, it doesn’t even have a place to hide now. This is a disaster for the Royal Navy, and this disaster is on its own. It started right now. A series of thick water columns soared into the sky on the left side of the British navy’s battleships. What made the captains feared was that the drop point of the shells was getting closer and closer to their warships. If they were in the open sea, they would be early. They began to snaking and maneuvering to avoid these shells, but in this narrow mine tunnel, they had no other way but to increase their horsepower and sail forward. The captains couldn’t help cursing in their hearts that this stupid The staff of the Admiralty who planned to get themselves into this dangerous situation.

　　"嘣..."

　　 With a loud noise, the battleship Nelson shuddered, and the violent tremor knocked all the officers on the bridge to the floor, and at the same time a sound like sounded in everyone’s ears The dull whistling sound of a train's air whistle.

　　"Where did I get hit!"

　　 hadn't waited for the admiral to get up and stand firmly. Another loud noise and vibration knocked him to the ground again.

　　 At this time, an officer in front of the bridge window pointed at the bridge and shouted: "Deck! The front deck has been shot! One more shot..." Before he could finish, there was a deafening explosion. Engulfed his shouts.

　　 A cloud of smoke rose from the front of the bridge. Then another explosion sounded, and a second cloud of smoke sprayed into the sky. The sad siren rang fiercely, and the heart-piercing siren spread to every corner of this flagship.

　　 "All departments report the damage, hurry up!" Admiral Forbes roared. He pushed away the captain who helped him up, and ran to the front window of the armored bridge and looked towards the foredeck.

　　 The miserable sight in front of him made the admiral, who had been in battle, almost passed out. I saw a big hole about four or five meters on the deck beside the majestic main gun group of this battleship. The beautiful oak deck nearby was torn to pieces and scattered everywhere, and under the oak floor The steel deck was rolled up and twisted into a distorted manner, and the situation on the next level was not clear, only heavy black smoke was continuously emerging from the big hole.

　　The bullet hole alone can’t make the admiral afraid like that. What makes him fear is the location where another cannonball fell. It hit the battleship’s B turret directly, and the cannonball fell directly from the top of the turret and penetrated The 178mm top armor was shot into the turret. It is not known whether the shell still penetrated the lower layers of armor. Below the turret is the ammunition depot, if it explodes there after penetration. . . . The admiral didn't dare to think anymore. He rushed to the row of telephones on the wall and picked up the dedicated telephone leading to the ammunition depot.

　　 "Ammunition depot, report the damage! Is there a fire? Hey..." No one answered.

　　 "Immediately fill the ammunition depot of the B turret!"

　　 Forbes issued an order to the captain: "It seems that the shell killed all the people there. The safety of the ammunition depot is the top priority regardless of the damage caused."

　　As soon as I said this, the battleship began to shake again, and a huge explosion of water once again surrounded the "Nelson".

　　 "How many fort cannons do those Germans have! Where did they get so many cannons!" Admiral Forbes screamed, clutching the handrail by the porthole.

　　 "Boom... Boom..."

　　 is another violent shock. The sound of the explosion came from behind the bridge. After this violent explosion, the phone in the bridge rang suddenly, and Captain Mills quickly picked up the phone.

　　 "General!"

　　After listening to the call, the captain reported to the commander-in-chief in frustration.

　　"The engine room was shot and caused a fire. Now the damage management team is extinguishing the fire."

　　 "What? How about the casualties?"

　　 Mills lowered his head and replied sadly: "No one should survive. What's worse is that we have completely lost motivation now."

　　 "God."

　　 Forbes stood by the porthole. He already felt that the battleship was slowly slowing down. It seemed that this flagship was about to become a target ship, and a battleship that lost power was no different from a target ship. The rotation of those turrets, the pitching of the artillery shells and the loading of the projectiles all require power. At the moment when it completely lost its power, this warship had already been disarmed.

　　"Captain, order the damage management personnel to extinguish the fire and repair the battleship as soon as possible. Order the battleships behind, ignore the flagship, and let them immediately suppress and shoot at the German artillery position!"

　　 "Yes. General."

　　 "Boom..." For the third time, the huge water roll enveloped the flagship. Fortunately, none of the shells hit "Nelson" in this shelling, and Forbes's hanging heart finally fell.

　　 "General, other warships are also injured, "Rodney" just signaled the death!" An officer ran into the bridge in a panic.

　　 "What!"

　　Admiral Forbes rushed out of the bridge and looked behind him. The sight in front of him made him stunned, and saw that the neat queues of the warships following him had dispersed, and each ship was embarrassed by one or two thick black plumes of smoke. He could clearly see the closest to him. The Rodney’s front deck was also hit by two shells, and what’s worse is that its A turret was overturned by a violent explosion on one side of the deck, and a plume of smoke entrained the flames from the huge mounting hole. Is rolling up. The admiral felt a sudden severe colic in his heart, and then he slowly fell down against the railing.

　　"General!"

　　The officers rushed over and carried their commander into the armored bridge.

　　"How are you? General!" Mills shouted loudly.

　　 Forbes slowly opened his eyes: "Now... I hand over the command of the fleet... to Lieutenant General Brygrowven on the Hood. Please inform immediately that he is now in charge of him. Come and command the fleet to continue fighting. If you must retreat, you can retreat. I will bear all the responsibility for the failure of this operation. But let him remember that the fleet must wait until all the boats have left there before the fleet can retreat. Before that, we We must continue to fight and maintain the honor of the Royal Navy. We must not abandon the civilians, and we must not abandon... Maintain the honor..."

　　 Royal Admiral Forbes closed his eyes forever, and died in his flagship command tower with doubts and unwillingness.

　　" The general took to his room and sent a report to the Hood, reporting what happened here and the general's final orders. Come on! Everyone is moving. We are still fighting. We will try our best to repair the warship, and we must avenge the general!" Captain Nelson, Colonel Mills, stood up abruptly ~ IndoMTL.com ~ roared and issued orders to the frustrated naval officers. The officers hurriedly ran to their posts after hearing the captain's words.

　　 "Boom..." A violent explosion sounded from outside the bridge.

　　 "Rodney... The Rodney exploded..." a lookout hand yelled in panic.

　　 Mills hurriedly ran to the observation deck and looked at the Rodney behind. I saw the Rodney aboard the raging fire, the entire front deck was engulfed by flames, and the huge hull had begun to slowly lean towards the port side. Her hull was still exploding, and the flames burst from every crack. And gushing out from the porthole, the rumble of explosions and the rattling of torn metal, and the miserable shouts of the crew members.

　　 Captain Mills watched his sister ship dying and struggling on the sea, a deep fear enveloped him. Is the Rodney, known as the World War VII ship, about to sink here? It shouldn't be like this. Even if she was going to sink, she should have been sinking in battle with a battleship as powerful as him. She definitely shouldn't have died in the hands of a group of army gunners who could not even swim.

　　"Quickly put down the lifeboat and rescue the drowners on the "Rodney"." Mills roared.

　　 Suddenly there was a roar of anti-aircraft guns on the sea. The six destroyers on the right flank of the fleet started firing at the same time, and began to quickly approach the battleship.

　　 "Look! German fighter jets! They are right above us, and the Air Force **** plane fought with them." A lookout finger yelled over his head.