To the southeast of the Hood, Somerville was lying on the ledge of the bridge of the USS Nelson, leaning forward, his face full of shock, grief and disbelief. [ads:This site has a new URL,Shorthand method:,.]

From a distance of seven or eight hundred meters, Somerville could feel the terrifying power of the Hood's explosion.

The battlecruiser USS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, turned out to be so sinking?

Less than ten minutes before the start of the war, it still sank into the sea in such a tragic way.

Somerville rubbed his eyes and looked in the direction of the Hood again, quickly confirming that he was not hallucinating, and that the Hood had disappeared without a trace.

"The time is too short, they can't escape, more than 1,400 people."

Somerville said to himself in grief that he had a lot of experience, and that only three or four minutes had passed from the breaking to the sinking of the Hood, and that in such a short period of time, the sailors on board simply did not have enough time to escape, not to mention that a large explosion inside the hull was enough to kill almost half of the crew.

Standing up straight, Somerville's eyes turned to the German warships in the distance, and shouted loudly: "Left rudder 25 degrees, all main guns modify the target, priority attack on the opponent's battleship." ”

At this time, Somerville also found that his side was in a disadvantageous position, and the German battleships occupied a T-shaped cross-cutting position, flanking their own ships, and the superior firepower of their own warships could not be fully exerted, and this unfavorable situation must be reversed immediately.

Picking up the binoculars, Somerville looked at the German battleship opposite with smoke billowing, bow submerged into the sea, and stern raised high, and muttered angrily: "It is unforgivable to recognize the wrong target."

Receiving Somerville's order, the battleship Nelson made an urgent turn and turned to the enemy with its starboard side, and the stern of the triple sixteen-inch main gun, which had been idle in the previous battle, slowly turned, flashing cold light and pointing at the German warship.

The sighters manipulated the large rangefinder to re-locate the target, pointing directly at the Bismarck and Tirpitz.

Somerville was busy adjusting the position of the home fleet, and after the Bismarck and Tirpitz teamed up to take out the Hood, they each found a new opponent.

The Bismarck approached the Prince of Wales. The Tirpitz found the Nelson.

The gunners skillfully adjusted the direction of the muzzles, and the nearly 750-kilogram shells were stuffed back into the chambers, and they could roar again when the ranging was completed.

On the Prince Eugen, Chen Dao's grief chased after Somerville.

The Blücher sent a report. The damage management failed, and the ship had to be abandoned.

The stern of the Blucher had been lifted out of the sea, and the crew received the order to abandon the ship and methodically lowered the lifeboats to escape, and some anxious crew members were impatient to line up and jumped directly into the water. Then swim towards the lifeboat.

The crew of the Blucher is in a race against time to escape the battleship before the Blücher sinks, and the lifeboat must escape the whirlpool before the Blucher sinks.

Fortunately, the British battleship had already realized that it had misjudged its target and was not concentrating its fire on the Blucher, leaving the crew of the Blucher with hope for more life.

Chen Dao retracted his gaze and turned to look at the British destroyer opposite.

He walked up to Colonel Brinkmann, the captain of the Prinz Eugen, and said in a deep voice: "There are still three destroyers left on the other side, how long will it take to kill them?" ”

"Ten to fifteen minutes." Colonel Brinkman said.

After a brief contact, the Prinz Eugen was a brother ship to the Admiral Hipper. Rushing to the southeast and northeast respectively, the British destroyers in the center of the battlefield were flanked from both flanks.

The British Home Fleet dispatched a total of seven destroyers this time, two of which remained to protect the aircraft carrier Dreadnought, and the remaining five followed the main force of the fleet to participate in the battle.

When the battle broke out, the five destroyers, with the pride of being a member of the Royal Navy, with their allegiance to the Reich and to the King, faithfully fulfilled their obligations, and rushed to the German fleet at a speed of more than thirty knots, firing sixty torpedoes in succession. Disrupt the positions of German enemy ships.

After releasing the torpedoes, they avoided the torpedoes fired by the Germans, and used their 120-mm naval guns to engage the oncoming German destroyers.

The anti-aircraft gunners on board even operated 40-mm anti-aircraft guns to fire flat. A ping-pong fight with four German destroyers was in full swing.

Behind them, four light cruisers, led by the Galati, were not far behind, supporting the destroyers with their 152-mm guns.

After a battle, they sank the German destroyers Z19 and Z21, and the destroyers Wenzer and Wevern were also sunk by German warships.

The remaining three destroyers were also wounded each.

The three destroyers saw the two heavy cruisers cut diagonally to the left and right wings, and the crews of the ships were baptized with death and blood at this time. The feverish mind has gradually cleared up.

The instinct for survival prevailed over the thirst for honor, and the three destroyers did not hesitate to turn around and flee, trying to break out of the flank.

However, the high speed of more than thirty knots could not escape the tracking of the shells.

Two formidable opponents quickly seized the wings at a speed not inferior to them.

The Prinz Eugen opened fire first, and the two twin 203-mm guns in the bow were pointed at a destroyer at medium range, and a light cruiser providing fire cover behind the destroyer.

The three twin 105-mm high-level guns on the port side frantically fired shells at the fleeing destroyer at a rate of about five or six seconds per shot.

The destroyer Veteran was subjected to two rounds of fire from six 105-mm guns and immediately became the "Old Sick".

The building on the right side and above the side of the ship was riddled with holes from 105-mm armor-piercing shells.

At the bow of the ship, the once-formidable triple torpedo tubes were now unrecognizable, turning into a pile of twisted and twisted scrap steel tubes.

The bulkhead on the right side of the bridge was turned into honeycomb coal, and the glass on the front was gone, leaving only hollow window frames and fragments of glass.

At the rear of the ship, billowing black smoke drilled through bullet holes in the chimney, blackening a large area of the hull building in the right rear.

The two 120-mm guns in the bow of the ship were still putting up a useless resistance, but two 203-mm shells immediately silenced them.

The turret of the "Old Sick" was overturned along with the first floor, and two 203-mm high-explosive shells crashed into the bridge of the ship in a dilapidated state, completely leveling it.

After the third and fourth rounds of 203-mm high-explosive shells were swept away, the chimney on the hull of the "Old Sick" disappeared, and only one of the two main guns in the stern of the ship remained, but then it flew into the sky in a terrible explosion.

The 105-mm high-level dual-purpose gun lived up to expectations, and the rainstorm successfully detonated the boiler of the "Old Sick", and white steam, fiery red flames and black smoke were mixed and sprayed out, mixed with several charred humanoid objects in the middle.

This round of explosions. The destroyer "Old Sick" was completely transformed into a flat-topped ship floating on the sea.

Seeing that he had succeeded in smashing the destroyer into scrap iron hulls, Brinkman turned his attention to another mortally wounded destroyer, the Wild Swan.

The Wild Swan had become a swan with a swan in the middle of an arrow, without the grace of a swan. It's a bit ugly of an ugly duckling.

Not only the chimneys, but also black smoke and steam burst out of the crevices of the Wild Swan.

The hull of the ship is like a giant with feet of clay, moving fast and slow, one by one, on the sea.

There can be no mercy on the battlefield, and the Prinz Eugen successfully played the role of a lore.

A row of 105-mm armor-piercing shells strafed into the stern waterline of the Wild Swan, chiseling out a row of water intakes. Ended the Wild Swan's meaningless escape.

Lowering the muzzle, the aft C turret of the Prince Eugen fired a deadly salvo.

The 203-mm shell easily burrowed into the stern of the Wild Swan, detonating its depth charge.

The spherical shock wave grew from small to large in the air, spreading rapidly, carrying countless ship parts and steel fragments in all directions.

Chen Dao clearly saw a hatch sweeping across the sea, making seven or eight drifts, and then sinking to the bottom of the sea.

Four or five humanoid objects flew into the sky and then fell into the raging sea like dumplings.

After the explosion, the last remaining one-third of the bow of the Wild Swan carried torpedo tubes and the only remaining 120 mm gun. Poured on its back into the sea, it quickly sank into the water, leaving only large patches of oil and various pieces of wreckage.

Chen Dao looked around the sea and could not find the shadow of the third destroyer.

Brinkman kindly reminded him that the destroyer had been sunk by the Admiral Hipper.

"We've taken out all the destroyers of the British, all the destabilizing factors have been eliminated, and now the real decisive battle is coming." Lütjans said.

Chen Dao nodded, turned his head to look at the surrounding sea, and muttered in a low voice.

Brinkman's left ear twitched a few times. He vaguely heard "Why haven't you come out yet?" Hidden deep enough. ”

Could it be that Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are hiding nearby?

Brinkman immediately dispelled his suspicions, and the two battleships would take at least four or five hours to arrive, and it was impossible for them to appear here.

Who's hiding? What is General Rosen waiting for? Brinkman's mind was full of question marks.

There was no time to ask Chen Dao, and Brinkmann immediately commanded the Prince Eugen into a new round of battle.

"Is that the Tirpitz? Does it look miserable? Chen Dao exclaimed.

"Its B turret was hit. Debris invaded the bridge, and people outside the armor protection inside the bridge are afraid of heavy losses. Ruetjens said.

At the moment when the Prinz Eugen turned around, Chen Dao saw a huge dent in the frontal armor of the Tirpitz's bow B turret.

A huge tear was also made at the junction between the front armor and the top armor, and the two huge barrels were raised and drooped.

Behind the B turret, a steel plate is owed to the lower right of the bridge. From afar, it looks like a scar.

Who did it? How dare you do such a heavy blow to the Tirpitz? Chen Dao turned his head to look at the British array in the distance, trying to find the culprit who had injured the Tirpitz.

Inside the battleship Nelson, Somerville burst out laughing excitedly.

The battleship Nelson successfully completed its magnificent turnaround, and all nine 406mm guns were put into battle.

After the first and second rounds of calibration, the Nelson's three stern guns successfully hit the Tirpitz in the third salvo.

Somerville saw a black dot bounce off the Tirpitz's bow into the sky, which must have hit its bow main turret.

With the power of the 406 mm shell, that turret must be completely useless, and don't think about firing again unless you return home for overhaul.

However, with the Royal Navy present, it will certainly not have the opportunity to return home for repairs.

A few more salvos will sink it, four or five?

Although the Nelson also suffered two shells, it did not hurt the vital point and did not affect the combat performance, and Somerville was confident that it would be able to deal with the opponent on the opposite side.

Report. The destroyer formation was completely annihilated, and the light cruiser formations Galati and Kenya were seriously wounded, incapacitated, and asked to withdraw from the battle. A staff officer shouted to Somerville.

Somerville's attention at this time was all focused on the battleship opposite. I didn't have time to care about such a trivial matter, so I said very simply:

"Permission to withdraw. Where is the USS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk? ”

After a few moments, another staff officer replied: "They have arrived at the battlefield and are engaged in an exchange of fire with a Deutschland-class armored ship." ”

Somerville nodded in satisfaction, and then his eyes lit up. He clearly saw black smoke rising from the middle of the hull of the battleship opposite.

"Hit again! Long live the Nelson! Somerville couldn't help but shout.

Before Somerville's wild screams had subsided, a piece of bad news stopped him.

"The Prince of Wales sent a report that the ship was badly damaged, the main guns were out of order, and the fight could not continue, and requested to be evacuated from the battlefield."

Somerville immediately looked in the direction of the battleship Prince of Wales, and sure enough, he saw that the 227-meter-long big guy was releasing smoke, and its slightly tilted body was turning around and retreating to the southeast.

"The little boy is really unreliable, let it go, but don't go too far. Let it hide behind the Nelson and provide us with fire support. Somerville made a quick decision.

The Prince of Wales was completed on 31 March, less than a month into service, and had not yet completed commissioning and training, and was nicknamed Little Boy by the Royal Navy.

Due to the unfavorable situation of the war and the shortage of battleships, the "little boy" Prince of Wales was only incorporated into the home fleet to make up the numbers.

Somerville soon received reports of damage to the Prince of Wales, who had been hit by two shells.

The first shell pierced the bridge from right to left, sending steel chips that killed almost everyone on the bridge, saving only the captain, Colonel Richie, and a signal corpsman.

The second shell was more deadly.

The shell hit the starboard underwater part after entering the water. As a result, a boiler on the starboard side was destroyed, the No. 1 generator room was flooded, the hull was tilted to the right front, and the left propeller tip was lifted off the water. The speed dropped to twenty-five knots.

In addition to receiving two shells, the bow quadruple turret ammunition supply chain failed, unable to reload, and the firepower was sharply reduced.

The request to retreat was granted, and under the cover of smoke, the Prince of Wales fired from the stern main guns. While closing the distance from the German warship, he took refuge behind the Nelson.

The Hood was sunk, the Prince of Wales was badly wounded, and could only use less than half of its firepower, and the Germans' capital ships were not sunk except for the substitute.

The Royal Navy is no longer in the ascendancy, is it time to retreat?

Somerville picked up his binoculars and stared at the German battleship in the distance emitting black smoke.

The battleship, one of the Bismarck-class battleships, had been seriously wounded by at least two shells from the Nelson, and it was still a few minutes longer to see if it could sink it, and it would take a major result to retreat.

Somerville had to hold his teeth and give orders.

"Order the Prestige and the Prince of Wales to concentrate their fire on the German warship emitting black smoke."

Inside the bridge of the Prinz Eugen, Lütjans gave orders similar to those in Somerville.

Two 406-mm armor-piercing rounds were fired, and the Tirpitz, shrouded in black smoke, turned around and headed southwest, spraying a large area of covering smoke in place.

"Smoke is also being released on the other side, and they also have ships to evacuate the battlefield, which should be the Prince of Wales." Lütjans said.

After a few seconds of silence, Lütjans then asked, "When exactly will they come out?" Do you want to wait until the battle is over? ”

Chen Dao heard the dissatisfaction in Lu Teyansi's tone, and replied with a frown: "I have a hunch that they will appear soon. As for the Prince of Wales entering my wolf's den, don't think of escaping. (To be continued.) )