About fifty nautical miles northwest of the battlefield, in the bridge of the USS Radiance, in the midst of the busy crowd, Admiral Tovey stood alone in front of the window, his face unusually pale. ●⌒，

After a long wait, Admiral Tovey did not wait for the news he wanted, but waited for a bad news.

The telegram from the captain of the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth, Colonel Charles, was succinct and to the point.

"The battleship was hit by two armor-piercing shells and three torpedoes, the hull is tilting to the right, it is sinking, the crew is evacuating, I have decided to sink with the ship, commander, please take care, long live the British Empire."

Colonel Charles sank with the Queen Elizabeth, and his old friend and subordinate were missing.

It won't be long before he and the Radiance will follow in the footsteps of Colonel Charles and be buried in this cemetery in the Gulf of Aden.

In Admiral Tovey's understanding, death is not terrible, but what is terrible is not being able to fulfill his last wish before death.

"Hasn't the reconnaissance plane sent out have found the target yet?" Admiral Tovey asked the captain of the Radiance anxiously.

"Not yet, General. Two of the four reconnaissance planes sent lost contact, most likely due to the downing of the Japanese fighters. The two surviving reconnaissance planes had to avoid the Japanese fighters, and the reconnaissance efficiency would not be so high. ”

Admiral Tovey turned his head dissatisfied, his emaciated face flushed with anger.

In the oppressive silence, time flew by until the excited voice of the captain of the Radiance rang out.

"The reconnaissance planes have found the position of the Japanese fleet, which is approaching the battlefield about seventy nautical miles southeast of the detachment. Visually there were two battleships and sixteen light battleships. ”

"The reconnaissance aircraft did not find the aircraft carrier of the Japanese?" Admiral Tovey asked.

"Nope."

Admiral Tovey sighed depressedly and said, "We are running out of time, so we order all the torpedo planes and fighter planes to attack." Attack on the Japanese fleet. Even if you sink one, it's fine. ”

The deck of the aircraft carrier Radiance was immediately busy.

Under Admiral Tovey's desperate determination. The Tejas activated all the remaining fighters and pilots.

Twenty Swordfish torpedo planes and 20 Pipenose Swallow multirole fighters, including reserve pilots and reserve fighters, took off one after another and formed a huge group of planes and flew southeast.

"God forbid, I hope they won't be discovered by the Japanese fighters halfway, and they can save some honor for the Royal Navy."

Watching the group go away, Admiral Tovey drew a cross on his chest and prayed silently for his men.

In the dark, the ghosts of HMS Warweary, HMS Barham, HMS Athletic and HMS Queen Elizabeth are also blessing the British fleet.

At last. Thanks to the carefully planned flight path of the captain of the Radiance, the revenge group was fortunate not to encounter the Japanese fighters, and under the guidance of the reconnaissance planes, they found the Japanese fleet, and the battle began.

Amid the shrill sirens of the Japanese fleet, twenty Swordfish torpedo planes shook their old bodies, turned sharply, circled the flanks of the Japanese fleet, and rushed towards the enemy against the sea level.

The multi-role fighters were even more exciting, and they rushed towards the enemy warships in the face of the dense artillery fire of the Japanese fleet.

Japanese 25-mm and 127-mm anti-aircraft shells kept exploding around the fuselage, and the explosion shook the British fighters.

The British pilots were fearless. Maneuvering the Guanbi Swallow fighter to draw a terrifying curve over the head of the Japanese warship, it smashed 250-pound aerial bombs into a group of two on the enemy's head.

Dozens of columns of water suddenly appeared on the surface of the sea. Surround the two Kongo-class battleships.

The Guanbi Yan multi-role fighter is not a German Stuka, nor is it a Japanese Type 99 carrier-based dive bomber, it cannot carry out accurate dive bombing, and the hit rate is even worse under the interference of the Japanese Navy's crazy anti-aircraft artillery.

After a round of dives, all forty 250-pound (113 kg) bombs were dropped, and only three hit their targets.

The battleship Kongo was hit by a bomb in the bow and in the middle, and the battleship Hiei was shot in the bow, but fortunately it missed the vital point.

The real destruction came from a badly wounded Tubenose Swallow fighter.

Dragging hundreds of meters of black smoke, with bullet holes and flames all over his body, the seriously injured British pilot piloted the plane, swayed towards the King Kong, and crashed headlong into the bridge of the battleship King Kong under the gaze of countless frightened eyes.

In the impact that shocked the battlefield, the Guanbi Yan fighter was shattered.

Flying propellers, broken wings, shattered hatch glass, and countless fragments of fuselage skin splashed onto the bow of the Kongo, instantly knocking down a piece of exposed anti-aircraft gunners.

The bridge of the King Kong was destroyed by a single blow, including the commander of the detachment, all the personnel in the bridge were either killed or injured in the explosion, and the corpses were strewn all over the ground, and the King Kong lost its command in an instant, and the detachment also lost its command.

At the cost of four downed planes, the Guanbi Swallow group had an effective round of attacks, and then flew and circled over the Japanese fleet, raining down bullets on the Japanese battleships with airborne machine guns, and the dense bullets carved countless bullet holes in the decks and cabins of the Japanese battleships.

Not to be outdone, the Japanese anti-aircraft gunners used their anti-aircraft guns to shoot at these dexterous enemies to defend the battleships on which they depended.

In the fierce confrontation, the sluggish Swordfish torpedo group finally arrived.

On the right flank of the Japanese fleet, ten swordfish torpedo planes advanced side by side, and after paying the price of two being shot down by anti-aircraft guns, when they flew to a distance of about seven or eight hundred meters from the Japanese fleet, they dropped torpedoes almost simultaneously.

Eight torpedoes fanned out towards the Japanese fleet, forcing the Japanese warships to turn to dodge, and the neat formation suddenly became chaotic.

The torpedo group, which had attacked from the left flank, took the opportunity to rush into the Japanese fleet, dodging anti-aircraft shells while rushing to the core of the fleet, two battleships emitting billowing black smoke.

Slowly, Swordfish with old-fashioned biplane mechanisms were hit one after another, falling into the sea with black smoke and torpedoes that were too late to fire.

There was no time to mourn for their comrades, and the only two remaining Swordfish torpedo planes rushed through layers of fire nets and fired two torpedoes at the port side of the smoky battleship Kongo.

The anti-aircraft gunners on the port side of the King Kong angrily opened fire on the two Swordfish, and the sailors also picked up their rifles and opened fire on the British fighters, breaking the two Swordfish that broke through the fire net into pieces and throwing them into the water. But to no avail.

Two torpedoes are like two dolphins. Take a dip in the water. Straight to the port side of the Kongo.

The bridge of the Kongo suffered a heavy blow, the command failed, and the evasive action was not made for a long time, and two torpedoes were eaten solidly.

In the rumbling loud noise, two monstrous waves rose from the port side and the stern of the Kongo, and the torpedo easily tore through the protective armor of the Kongo, which was only the level of a battle cruiser, and blew two huge cracks more than ten meters long on the port side of Kongo, and tons of seawater surged into the ship's hold. Rushing to every corner of the Kongo's cabin.

When the Zero fighter flew over the Japanese fleet in a hurry, he only saw the battleship Kongo lying on its side on the surface of the sea, and the left half of the hull had been submerged in the sea, so there was no value in rescuing, unless there was a miracle.

Miracles exist only in legends, and the King Kong sank unstoppably to the bottom of the sea, ending her twenty-eight years at sea.

The red-eyed Japanese pilots then vented their anger on the surviving British planes.

In the face of the fast and ferocious Zero fighter, the old Swordfish was defenseless and was slaughtered in a matter of minutes.

The surviving Pipenose Swallow fighters abandoned the attack on the battleship and bravely fought the Zero fighters instead. Helpless but outnumbered, they were blown up in the air one by one. Immediately, there were six or seven more white umbrella flowers in the sky.

Several British pilots who had successfully parachuted looked in horror at the oncoming Zero fighters, clearly seeing the tongues of fire spewed out by the guns on board, followed by the pain of their bodies being torn apart by bullets.

Inhumane, inhumane, and unruly, these were the last thoughts on the minds of British pilots.

Hearing the news that the King Kong had sunk and that the captain and the commander of the detachment had died at the same time, Nagumo could no longer maintain Furui Wubo's expression, and smashed his fist on the bridge glass in annoyance.

"Send all the reconnaissance planes at once, be sure to find the British aircraft carrier, and then sink it to avenge the King Kong."

Admiral Tovey's happiness is built on Nagumo's suffering.

After receiving the battle report, a wry smile finally appeared on Admiral Tovey's stiff face.

"By sinking a Kongo-class battleship, we can finally wait for the final moment with peace of mind. Those Japanese monkeys must be frantically looking for us at this time, to avenge their battleship.

I guess they'll find us in half an hour, and we'll still have plenty of time to grab a cup of coffee and write a suicide note to our family back home. ”

Admiral Tovey made a rare joke, and the captain of the Radiance cooperated in asking his men to bring him a steaming cup of coffee.

Admiral Tovey picked up his coffee cup and brought it to his lips to blow away the heat from the coffee.

The hot coffee in the mouth, and before he could tell whether the coffee was more sweet or bitter, Admiral Tovey spat out the coffee in his mouth with a "poof" and coughed violently.

"Ahem, ahem, what did you say? Is there a fleet approaching? Admiral Tovey asked, wide-eyed.

"Listen, the battle alarm has been sounded, and the enemy is moving faster than we thought." Captain Radiance said.

"The combat efficiency of the Japanese turned out to be so high? I underestimated them. Admiral Tovey sighed.

The captain of the Radiance put down the microphone in his ear and said in a deep voice: "The enemy is coming from the northwest, and it should be the Germans." ”

Admiral Tovey opened his mouth and it took a long time to squeeze out a sentence.

"I almost forgot that the Germans also had aircraft carriers."

As soon as Admiral Tovey finished speaking, the sound of Bofors' 40-mm anti-aircraft guns reached his ears.

The sound of artillery was also mixed with the noise of aircraft engines, which was getting louder and louder.

A group of 12 ME-109 fighters and 30 Ju-87C Stuka emerged from the clouds and rushed to the surface of the aircraft carrier Radiance.

The light cruiser and the two destroyers escorting the Radiance also shook the sky and joined this final battle.

Twelve ME-109 fighters were the first to fly into battle at high speeds, and unlike usual, they had bomb pylons attached to their bellies.

The plane swayed from side to side in the sky and swooped down towards the aircraft carrier Radiance, which was making a serpentine maneuver on the sea.

The moment the stern to the bow skimmed over the deck of the aircraft carrier, the bomb in the belly of the Me-109 aircraft fell on the deck of the Brilliant.

To the astonishment of Admiral Tovey and the anti-aircraft gunners on deck, the bombs disintegrated in the air, spilling out countless small bombs with wings.

What kind of new weapon is this? Admiral Tovey was lying behind the glass of the bridge and watched, and countless small bombs fell on the deck of the Radiance in swarms like butterflies, and it looked spectacular.

A few butterfly bombs had just landed under the bridge window when they suddenly exploded in volley, each bomb bursting out a full 300 pieces of shrapnel in all directions.

Admiral Tovey reflexively leaned back to avoid the bomb exploding.

With the clanging sound, countless cobweb-like cracks appeared in the bulletproof glass in front of him, which looked shocking.

Oh no, the anti-aircraft gunners, Admiral Tovey, hurriedly threw himself down the window and looked into the deck below the bridge.

The anti-aircraft gunners fighting in the open air lay on their gun emplacements, and the sound of anti-aircraft guns in their ears was almost inaudible, except for the dive of German fighters.

A piercing shriek rang out, and Admiral Tovey immediately remembered the horrors of last year's September 11.

On that day, in the midst of this screeching one after another, the Mediterranean Fleet was heavily damaged by an overwhelming number of German warplanes, and the old boss, Admiral Cunningham, was escorted back to China for trial. Since that day, the Royal Navy has been undefeated.

Today, this piercing scream is sounding again, does it mean the complete annihilation of the Indian Ocean Fleet?

The cluster bombs of the ME-109 fighter almost wiped out the British anti-aircraft gunners on the deck in one fell swoop.

Fifteen Stuka dive bombers swooped down on the Radiance with impunity, throwing five hundred kilograms of armor-piercing shells onto the deck with a piercing screech.

The Radiance dashed left and right, narrowly avoiding the attack of two Stukas, and was then hit by the third and fourth Stukas, and the straight deck instantly had two more irregularly shaped openings.

Not caring about the consequences of the bombs in the two holes, Admiral Tovey frowned and looked at the left and right sides of the Radiance, while the rest of the Stuka bombers were charging at the Radiance with torpedoes.

He had just seen seven or eight Stuka drop torpedoes, and before the captain of the Radiance could give the order to evade, the forward deck suddenly erupted with a burst of fire, and the violent explosion almost pierced his eardrums, and Admiral Tovey clearly felt the vibration coming from under his feet.

A momentary loss of consciousness is a farewell.

The explosion of the two bombs interrupted the order of the captain of the Radiance, as well as the evasive maneuvers of the Radiance.

Four torpedoes hit the left and right sides of the Brilliant, and the continuous shaking almost overturned all the crew members of the Brilliant.

Before the Radiant could recover from the heavy damage, two more 500-kilogram armor-piercing shells hit the deck of the Radiance.

In the endless sound of explosions, black smoke, red flames, and white waves surrounded the Radiance.

Admiral Tovey didn't finish the last cup of coffee.

The fifth torpedo hit the Emily under the starboard bridge, which was the last straw that broke the Embarrassment.

The Radiance's massive body fell to the right, and the bridge slammed into the water, and then submerged with Admiral Tovey and others.

When the Japanese Navy arrived more than 40 minutes later, the Radiance had long since disappeared, and they saw only a large area of oil on the surface of the sea and countless struggling British sailors. (To be continued......)