In the darkness before dawn, the turbulent waves crashed into the battleship one after another, but the qualitative difference between the two was huge, and the waves all shattered into grains of water, but they could only slightly slow down the other's degree.

HMS Counter-Attack, one of the active capital ships of the British Royal Navy, was a battle cruiser of the same class as HMS Prestige. After the second modernization in 1936, the large battleship from 1915 had a displacement of 5.8 tons when fully loaded, which was almost on the same level as the Nelson-class battleships, and the converted Queen Elizabeth-class battleships were no more than a ton! In terms of appearance and size, it is one of the largest behemoths in the Royal Navy, only slightly smaller than the battle cruiser "Hood", which has a displacement of nearly 5 tons. However, behind this huge body and astonishing tonnage, the firepower and armor of this class of battleships did not show corresponding strength - the "Prestige", which was equipped with 380-meter naval guns, was seriously damaged by two Scharnhorst-class battleships with a tonnage smaller than itself in just a few rounds, and then was easily sent to the bottom of the sea by German submarines, while the "Counterattack", which was built at the same time and modernized earlier, was not strong compared to its sister ships in terms of technical data.

Despite all the design failures, the two Prestige-class battlecruisers were the most active capital ships in the Royal Navy – the Supreme Voyage was one of the largest naval ships of the time they were built, and its 15-inch guns were equally powerful. It's a pity that more than 20 years have passed. After two major modifications, the prestige level of the place can't catch up with the young juniors, plus the wear and tear of equipment and some changes in the modification, they are no longer the "wind chasing boys" who surprised the ocean back then.

Under normal circumstances, the Counterattack would not have outrun the equally high-emphasis Scharnhorst class despite its best efforts, but fortunately, it could at least catch up with the pocket battleships with large diesel engines, provided that the opponent showed up and had a head-to-head race with it.

On the high bridge, which was almost at the same level as the main smoke, Captain William. Tennant was watching the furious sea with concern as the support fleet of the battle-cruiser Counter-Attack, the heavy cruiser Norfolk, the class destroyer USS Echo, and the F-class destroyer USS Fire Dragon was sailing 28 knots 650 nautical miles west of Dublin – only two or three hours from the dire flotilla. New distress telegrams are received almost every few minutes on board. This made the atmosphere on the bridge inexplicably depressing. Previous information from the Ramillis has proved that the attack included one of the Scharnhorst-class battleships, the strongest in the German Navy at the moment, and that was one of the culprits in the sinking of the Prestige. This time, it was accompanied by an Admiral-Hipper-class heavy cruiser equipped with 8-inch guns and with a displacement of no more than 10,000 tons, and the strength of the two ships was naturally inferior to that of the "Shaneenga" and the "Gneisenau" in good health, which carried 15-inch heavy guns. Therefore, after obtaining this information, the "counterattack" and the whole ship held their breath to avenge their sister ship.

The crews are eager to fight. Isn't that true of their captains? But experienced William. Tennant had already learned the cunning of German opponents - a year ago, in order to pursue the German pocket raiders that broke through into the Atlantic, the Royal Navy dispatched nearly one-third of its ships to pull down a large net in the three oceans, including the "Prestige" and "Counterattack" and many other warships traveled thousands of nautical miles, and repeatedly found traces of the other side but were repeatedly slipped away by the other side.

At the thought of this, Colonel Tennant was both depressed and helpless, how he hoped that the Germans would be stranded on the battlefield because of the greed for the "food" in front of them, although a fierce battle was inevitable, but the overall superiority of the Royal Navy made the commanders not only not afraid of a ship-to-ship war of attrition. Rather, it was seen as an effective strategy against the German Navy. However, with the current state of the German Navy, the configuration of a Scharnhorst-class battleship and an Admiral-Hipper-class heavy cruiser can be regarded as the main fleet, which means that the commander is very likely to be Heino, who has repeatedly called the British Royal Navy embarrassed. Feng. Admiral Finkenstein. This man was already widely regarded in England as another Reinhardt of the German Navy. Scheer. There were even prophecies that this man would become the Nelson of Germany. Regardless of whether these views are overly pessimistic, it says at least one thing - this person is very difficult to deal with!

"Colonel, a secret message from London!"

Oh......" Tennant took the telegram and glanced at it hurriedly, then turned to his lieutenants and said, "The Hood and the Glory have set sail from Portsmouth!" ”

in Germany

Before the destroyer was put into service, the giant ship "Hood" surpassed the strength of Europe, and the attack on the French Navy was also fully demonstrated by the previous attack, and as a cruiser-converted medium-sized aircraft carrier, the "Glorious" has high seaworthiness and seaworthiness performance that allows it to go to sea with other ships to fight. The capacity of up to 48 carrier-based aircraft will greatly increase the fleet's reconnaissance, long-range attack and air defense capabilities.

The officers around Tennant did not react very strongly to this "good news", as everyone knew that the distance from Portsmouth to here was 800 nautical miles, and even if the fleet had run with all its might, it would take at least 24 hours to reach the battlefield in bad weather, and it was obvious that one could not expect the "Swordfish" and "Thief" to swing so well - perhaps they would not even be able to leave the deck!

In the midst of people's complex emotional torment, the darkness on the horizon finally faded, and the blurred vision slowly spread, as if the whole world had just opened in chaos. On the stormy sea, the waves are still stubbornly slapping against the battleship moving high, the sharp ship has drawn a long water mark on the dark green sea, and the rain has ruthlessly fallen on the faces of the officers and soldiers wearing ponchos, but now there is nothing to prevent these brave, resolute, confident, and proud people from rushing to those compatriots who are in danger.

"See!" At last, there was a sound of excitement from the lookout, and even though it was only a puff of smoke at the end of the sea and sky, it was enough to make everyone's hearts tighten.

A striking battle flag was quickly raised on the masts of the four warships, and the sailors quickly lifted the waterproof canvas covering the various guns, and the muzzles of the large and small guns quickly turned to different warning areas, and they could be beaten all at once when the enemy ships appeared.

On the bridge, the officers knew more about the fleet than the sailors because of the distress telegram, but at this time they were also looking ahead anxiously and worriedly. As part of the Royal Navy, as British, they all expected more ships to be spared the most tragic fate, and this was being presented to them in the truest way.

The "Ramillis" was still on the surface, and after holding out tenaciously for more than four hours, it was now covered by the sea and the hull was tilted badly, but several of the main guns were still stubbornly holding their muzzles high, and some of the officers and sailors were struggling in the surging waves, and the few were rowing lifeboats to try to help more people; Barely half of the 48 merchant ships that sailed from Halifax were struggling on the sea, and more than 100,000 tons of significant cargo had already been shipped.+&1t, and thousands of people had to fight to death because of the sinking of the ships, and at this time, almost no one remembered the poor seaplane carrier, which had long since died in a storm of artillery fire, but death still failed to defend the honor of the British Empire, and they lost the battle born in the heart of the ocean, which was destined to be a far-reaching defeat. Perhaps in the coming months, the whole of Britain will be reeling from this painful defeat.

The German fleet was gone, but the ghostly German submarines still threatened the remaining ships, and the British officers and men with Tennant were forced to put away their thirst for revenge, take in the helpless overboard with a sense of loneliness, and then escort the battered fleet back on its way. Soon after, a large number of support ships, including the "Hood" and the "Glorious", joined the escort queue. After another day, after the fleet had entered the effective range of activities of the native bombers and small ships, the British Navy formed two alert fleets with the "Hood" and "Counterattack" as the core to search for the German fleet in the Atlantic. The use of the main fleet to escort the merchant fleet was not worth the loss both strategically and economically, so the British finally decided to extend the suspension of the Atlantic route - the fleet could only sail from North America to Britain if it was escorted by at least two battleships or the equivalent of two battleships, which meant that the British Navy could only escort at most one fleet into the Atlantic route at a time before the United States counteroffensive. In the face of the aggressive offensive of the German and Chinese air forces, the British Empire was gradually plunged into the greatest crisis since Napoleon galloped across Europe.

Zhang Kai ordered the Hood to turn right 15, course 20 must block the British Elizabeth, the Royal Venice is now attacked by the German destroyer Hood and seriously damaged, the cruiser Elizabeth was attacked by the fourth group of Allied submarines, the British commander Nanis, Vice Admiral Nike asked the naval soldiers to abandon the ship collectively, and soon the Napoleon Tomahawk came to the rescue, during this period, the British Navy began to board the Napoleon, and the German 180 mm destroyer main gun attack fell on the deck, Then more than 20 people fell to the shell, and the British Vice Admiral Nico shouted loudly to go, go quickly, but unfortunately a shell hit, and it exploded not far from Vice Admiral Nico, and the whole person flew out, covered in blood, and the Napoleon quickly left and disappeared into the sea。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。