Battle of the Third Reich

Forbes did not associate the shelling in front of him with the smoke from the German position in front of him. He could not believe that the dense fire was shot from the German land. According to intelligence, German artillery can hit more than 18,000 meters, and these destroyers are at least 19,000 meters offshore. German artillery cannot 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 the furry. If the German warship really came here, then the problem was serious. If it is in other seas, even if the entire German fleet comes to him, he doesn't care, and now there are few battleships in Germany that are opponents of his main fleet. But now his own fleet is trapped in this narrow channel, and it is difficult to change course. If he is bombarded by the German fleet, he can only move in one direction like a target, and tells himself how to fight the elite German warships.

"Did the radar room report? Did you find a German warship near us? Let the guard destroyers expand the search range, and the right-wing destroyers pay attention to the sea surface, and let the injured destroyers immediately report their damage. The ships stop bombardment and put down Motorized lifeboats began to rescue the damaged ships. The fleet was anchored, the turbines were on standby, ready to maneuver to avoid navigation. The radar and observation posts of each ship searched for the source of the shelling. The radar room has not yet returned." Forbes roared with anger .

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

"Impossible. Their cannons can't hit this far........ The Germans have a fortress cannon?" Forbes hurried to the platform beside the bridge and set up the telescope to the nearest ship that was rolling. The smoky destroyer looked away.

That was the destroyer leader "Somali" of the 11th destroyer unit. Now that the battleship is completely paralyzed, she is now slanting 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 blazing fire. Her first building had collapsed, and the upper half of the bridge was blown up. There was no one who could survive. The admiral could not help but mourn for Captain Nicholson, who was commanding the bridge. Some destroyer experts.

The c turret in front of the bridge has disappeared without a trace, leaving only a pile of twisted turret platform debris still smoking there. The crew were running around on the deck in a panic. The damage control team was desperately spraying water to the stern deck with a water dragon, but anyone could see that the destroyer was not saved. With a loud noise, a huge ball of fire rose from the rear deck of the Somalis, and the entire second half of the destroyer exploded in front of Forbes to pieces.

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

"Not a fortress."

The Admiral looked sadly at the destroyer leader, which was sinking rapidly. The crew were leaping into the sea scrambling, and the lifesaving lay down by the Nelson was heading towards the sailors who were struggling in the sea.

"It's not a fortress cannon." The admiral once again said affirmatively: "If they were bombarded by a fortress cannon, the ship would have been cut in half."

He looked toward several other medium-destroyed destroyers, and now those destroyers are crooked on the sea, still burning and exploding. Their sinking is just a matter of time.

"We lost four tribes and two f-classes, but we don't even know what sank them."

"Admiral, the boat team reported that they were not under artillery, which proves that the artillery in front of them was indeed from the German land artillery. They had artillery with such a range! We were fooled!" Mills took the phone in the bridge Shouted at Forbes.

Forbes heard the captain's report and felt black. Those cunning Germans, stupid intelligence personnel. Now his own warship is pushed to the edge of the cliff by wrong information. If the Germans really have long-range artillery, then their fleet has only two roads left. The first one is to shoot at the German artillery groups on the shore and find ways to suppress the firepower of the other party. The consequences of this are difficult to predict, and it is likely to pay a great price. These warships are the elite of the Royal Navy. Are unacceptable.

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

Admiral Forbes decided to choose the first path. Your own warships must not run away because of the bombardment of several army artillery. Even if the situation is severe and the combat conditions are harsh, the fleet should insist on fighting the enemy in 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 coordinate positions of those artillery positions. The salvo will start in five minutes."

"Follow the order, general."

"The German cannons are firing again!" a watchman shouted down the telescope and pointed in the direction of the German position.

Admiral Forbes hurried to the porthole and took a telescope to look at the German position. This time the bombardment smoke is thicker and higher than the previous one, and it is not rising from the original position. This time the smoke is more backward than last time.

"Does the Germans have two artillery positions? Okay, then expose them one by one. Order the battlecruiser squadron to target this new German artillery position, and the other battleships to the previous German artillery position. Prepare to suppress the shooting. . Why haven’t you moved the ship yet?"

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

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

"God, this is the fortress cannon! They really have the fortress cannon. Order the fleet to advance at full speed!"

From the size of the water column, Forbes can see that the shell reached at least three hundred millimeters. The Germans possessed heavy artillery of more than 300 millimeters, which made General Forbes's heart cold. A warship that wants to shoot at a fortress cannon is stupid. It can easily damage or sink the warship. Besides, there is no place to hide from it. This is a disaster for the Royal Navy, and this disaster is now in its own It started right now. One after another, thick water jets soared up on the left side of the British navy’s battleships, which made the captains fear that the landing points of the shells were getting closer and closer to their warships. If they were in the open sea, they would have been early I began to snake to avoid these shells, but in this narrow mine channel, I had no other way but to increase the horsepower forward. The captains could not help but curse in my heart to set this stupid. The admiralty staff who planned to plunge themselves into this dangerous situation.

"Boom..."

With a loud tremor, the battleship Nelson trembled, and the violent shock knocked all the officers on the bridge to the floor. At the same time, a train whistle sounded in everyone's ears. The dull howling.

"Which one was hit!"

Before the admiral got up and stood up again, the loud noise and vibration knocked him down again.

At this time, an officer in front of the bridge window pointed out under the bridge and shouted: "Deck! The front deck was shot! There is another round..." There was a deafening explosion before he finished talking. Swallowed 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 jingle sounded loudly, and the heartbreaking jingle sound spread to every corner of this flagship.

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

The miserable sight in front of him made the war-admired admiral almost pass 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 into pieces and scattered everywhere, and under the oak floor. The steel deck rolled up and twisted distorted, and the situation on the next floor was unclear, only to see that there was a continuous thick black smoke coming out of the big hole.

This bullet hole alone could not make the admiral fear that way. What scared him was the location where another shell fell. It actually hit the b turret of the battleship directly. The shell fell directly from the top of the turret and penetrated a hundred. Seventy-eight millimeters of top armor was shot into the turret, and it is not known whether that shell still penetrated several layers of armor below. Below the turret is the ammunition depot if it exploded there after it penetrated. . . . The admiral dare not think about it. He rushed to the row of telephones on the wall and picked up the dedicated phone to the ammunition depot.

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

"Inject water into the turret of b turret immediately!"

Forbes issued an order to the captain: "It seems that the shell killed all the people there. No matter how the damage is caused, the safety of the ammunition depot is the first priority."

Just now, the battleship began to shake again, and the huge blast of water surrounded the Nelson again.

"How many fort cannons did those Germans have! Where did they get so many cannons!" Admiral Forbes wailed as he gripped the handrails of the portholes with ashes.

"Boom...Boom...Boom..."

Another violent shock. The explosion sound came from behind the bridge. After this violent explosion, the phone in the bridge rang violently, and Captain Mills quickly picked up the phone.

"General!"

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

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

"What? How about the casualties?"

Mills lowered his head in a sad answer: "No one should survive. What's worse is that we have completely lost momentum now."

"God."

Forbes stood by the porthole. He already felt that the warship was slowly slowing down. It seems that this flagship will soon become a target ship. The lost power warship is the same as the target ship. The rotation of those turrets, the artillery pitching projectiles and the loading of the projectiles all require power. At the moment of total loss of power, the battleship was disarmed.

"Captain, order those damage control personnel to extinguish the fire and repair the warships in the fastest time. Order the warships behind, ignoring the flagship, and let them immediately shoot down at the German artillery positions!"

"Observe. General."

"Boom..." The huge water jacket shrouded the flagship for the third time. But fortunately, no shells hit "Nelson" in this bombardment, and Forbes's dangling heart finally fell.

"General, other battleships are also injured. "Rodney" just sent out a distress signal!" An officer panicked and ran into the bridge.

"what!"

Admiral Forbes rushed out of the bridge and looked towards his back. The sight in front of him made him stunned. I saw that the neat queues of the warships behind him had dispersed, and each ship raised an awkward thick black smoke column, and he could clearly see the closest to him. Rodney also had two shells on the front deck, and what was worse was that its a turret had been overturned on the side of the deck by a violent explosion, and a thick smoke was carrying a flame from the huge installation hole. Rising up. The admiral felt a sudden severe colic in his heart, and then he fell slowly against the railing.

"General!"

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

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

Forbes slowly opened his eyes: "Now... I will give the command of the fleet... to Lieutenant General Breigrove on the Hood, please inform immediately that he will now command the fleet. Continue to fight, if you have to retreat, you can retreat, and I will bear all the responsibility for the failure of this operation. But let him remember that the fleet must retreat after all the boats have left there. Before that, we must insist on fighting. Going forward, we must maintain the honor of the British Royal Navy, we cannot abandon those civilians, we cannot abandon... maintain... honor...

Royal Admiral Forbes closed his eyes forever, and was suspicious and unwilling to die in his flagship command tower.

"The general took him to his room and sent a report to the Hood, reporting what happened to Lieutenant General Breigrove and the general's final order. Quick! Everyone was moving. We are still fighting. We are working hard to repair Battleship, we want to avenge the general!" Captain Mills, the captain of the Nelson, stood up violently, roaring and issuing orders to the disappointed naval officers. After hearing the captain's words, the officers quickly ran to their posts.

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

"Rodney... The Rodney exploded..." A lookout panicked.

Mills hurried to the lookout towards the Rodney at the rear. I saw the raging fire on the Rodney, the entire front deck was engulfed in flames, the huge hull had begun to lean slowly towards the port, her hull was still exploding, the flames from every crack And from the portholes, the rumbling explosions and the rattling of metal tears, and the miserable cry of the crew were endless.

Captain Mills watched his sister ship dying and struggling on the surface of the sea, a deep fear shrouded him. Will the Rodney, known as the world's seven largest battleships, sink here? It shouldn't be like this. Even if she wants to sink, she should fight against a battleship as powerful as him. She should never die in the hands of a group of army gunners who can't even swim.

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

Suddenly a roar of anti-aircraft guns sounded on the surface of the sea. The six destroyers on the right side of the fleet began to shoot at the same time and began to move towards the battleship quickly.

"Look! German fighters! They are on top of us, and the Air Force **** aircraft fought against them." A lookout yelled over his head.

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