Somerville watched the Prince of Wales, who had been in the Royal Fox for less than a month, sink.

Somerville tearfully withdrew his gaze and looked at the "old man" Nelson, who had served for nearly fourteen years.

By this time, the Nelson had been bruised by the fighting.

The Nelson has three triple main guns, which adopts a rare full front-facing layout, with the No. 2 turret on the top and the No. 1 and No. 3 turrets on the bottom.

The muzzles of the nine powerful main guns were pointed to starboard in unison, and it looked like they wanted to choose someone to devour.

Somerville, however, was well aware that the nine 406-millimeter cannons had become useless paper tigers.

The speed of fifteen knots greatly reduced Nelson's ability to evade shells, and she narrowly escaped four torpedoes from starboard, but was able to survive two rounds of three shells.

The rangefinder in the bow of the ship was destroyed, turned into a pile of scrap steel that could not be seen in its original shape, and without the assistance of the rangefinder, the nine main guns lost the ability to fire accurately.

The No. 2 turret was originally high on top, but it was first cared for by German shells, and the seven-inch-thick armor on the top of the turret was gone, leaving only an oval-shaped gap, and the steel plate at the edge of the hole became jagged inside and out, which looked shocking.

Somerville gritted his teeth and shouted to the communicator, "Haven't you contacted the gunner of turret number two yet?" Immediately check the danger of the second turret and see if there is a fire? ”

Witnessing the tragic explosion of the Hood's ammunition depot, Somerville did not want the Nelson to follow in the footsteps of the Hood, and the same tragedy was enough for one time.

The damage control team quickly rushed into the No. 2 turret and was immediately shocked by the tragic situation of the No. 2 turret.

The corpses and wounded lay on the ground. It was surrounded by steel chips.

Everywhere there were scattered shells, angles and steel frames. There was also a dented and deformed shell warhead⊥ it was this unrecognizable warhead that caused the tragedy here.

The tragic situation of the second turret was quickly reported to the bridge, and Somerville breathed a sigh of relief, and then shouted loudly: "Order all ships, disperse and break out, and leave the Nelson alone." For the honor of the royal fox, for the sake of His Majesty the King, all gun emplacements had to fight to the last shell, firing. ”

Finish issuing the command. Somerville said to Adjutant Captain Thatch, "Go to my cabin at once and bring me my medal box." ”

Captain Thatch, with red circles under his eyes, sped back and handed Somerville a delicate oak box.

Moments later, Somerville had two more glittering medals on his chest.

Two medals brought Somerville back to life.

A rumbling sound rang from the front of the bridge, and the six cannons of the No. 13 turret spewed out a scorching dragon again, and gray-black smoke filled Somerville's eyes.

The gunners in the two turrets, not giving up the courage to resist, were still trained to load, aim and shoot, showing their heroism to their German counterparts.

"Yes, exactly. Fire, keep firing. Somerville leaned in front of the window. shouted with high morale.

To the northwest of the battlefield, the Prinz Eugen made a graceful curve on the surface of the sea, circling the stern of the Nelson.

The Nelson adopts the layout of all turrets in front, and the biggest advantage is that it can greatly shorten the length of the warship's main armor belt and save a lot of tonnage.

This layout also maximizes forward firepower, but is passive against tail-chasing enemies, especially those directly behind.

As a veteran German fox general, Lütjens was well aware of Nelson's shortcomings.

The Prinz Eugen cut cross-cutting to the stern of the Nelson, starboard facing the faltering Nelson, and its eight 203-mm guns were fired at full fire.

The four main guns in the bow of the ship were pointed at the Nelson superstructure, and the four main guns in the stern were pointed at the stern rudder position of the Nelson, and they rained shells on the Nelson with impunity.

Numerous columns of water rose from the stern of the Nelson, and a dense array of armor-piercing shells destroyed the Nelson's steering system.

The two propellers were hit one after the other to stop turning, the rudder was stuck in the position of turning thirteen degrees to the right, and the outside of the stern was seriously damaged.

The 203-mm armor-piercing bullet cut out numerous bullet holes, and seawater poured in from the mottled bullet holes.

The stern of the ship was badly damaged, the wound was irreparable, all speed was lost, and the damage management personnel quickly reported the bad news to the bridge, but Somerville had no time to take care of it at this time, and under the devastation of a series of bad news, Somerville's spirit had entered a state of insensitivity.

The dense shells hit and damaged the Nelson's turret No. 1, causing the turret to rotate and the three main guns to hang limply on the deck.

The No. 2 turret, which had suffered heavy damage first, suffered another heavy blow and was blown into fragments and flew backwards into the bridge.

Fragments of steel flew at high speeds and were razor-sharp, and the unprotected parts of the bridge were cut to pieces, and blood and corpses were covered in the bridge.

A 283-mm shell from the Deutschland hit the 6-inch secondary gun turret on the starboard side.

The armor-piercing shell ignited the ammunition depot of the secondary gun, resulting in a massive explosion.

The blast wave tore through the armor plates near the ammunition depot, fragments of shells and fragments of hull steel plates overturned the adjacent superstructure, and the fire began to burn inside the Nelson.

A 381-mm shell hit turret No. 3, which led to an explosion in the middle barrel of turret No. 3.

A fire broke out inside the turret, but the left and right barrels continued to fire a round of shells until the gunners could no longer tolerate the heat and smoke in the turret and left the turret.

A shell fell into the water and hit a boiler compartment on the starboard side, the body of which hit the mine protection compartment outside the boiler compartment and exploded, damaging the hull.

Shrapnel and armor fragments severed the steam pipes in the cabin, and the subsequent large amount of water ingress caused the boiler compartment to shut down.

Another 283-mm shell hit the storage compartment of a 40-mm anti-aircraft gun, killing many crew members operating in nearby cabins, and flames began to spread across the ship's amidships, decks and superstructures

Somerville looked up and saw that the position of the home fleet was gone, and the British ships in sight were shrouded in black smoke and flames.

The smoke drifting on the surface of the sea, the only thing that comforted Somerville, was that the surviving ships were withdrawing from the battlefield.

Choking smoke poured into the bridge from the ventilation ducts and ruptured wounds, and Somerville coughed uncontrollably.

The smoke came from turret three, which had been blown over by a violent explosion. A puff of smoke and flames billowed up from the massive mounting holes, swirling around the bridge under the action of the sea breeze.

Somerville coughed and said the will: "The last report, the Nelson has fought to the last shell, without detrimental to the honor of the Royal Fox, long live the British Empire." ”

The correspondent faithfully carried out Somerville's last order, and then flew to the deck, where Captain Thatch was chased away by Somerville and joined the fugitive.

Somerville picked up the binoculars and looked southeast, a relieved smile on the corner of his mouth.

The Prestige had escaped the encirclement, and at its speed it should have been difficult for the Germans to catch up, and it was not completely annihilated.

With one last smile on his face, Somerville collapsed on his back

Five or six minutes later, from a distance, the Nelson's hull was now full of holes, with chimneys, masts, bridges, and almost all the superstructures razed to the ground.

Smoke and flames erupted from every corner, reflecting the white columns of water that surrounded them.

The swarming German warships still fired at the Nelson mercilessly, from the bow to the stern, shells of various calibers exploded one after another, and the Nelson completely turned into an erupting volcano.

Figures rushed to the hellish deck and jumped into the sea without hesitation, escaping purgatory.

Seven submarines surfaced one after another, and the U43 was no exception, but they did not open fire.

The deadliest blow was to be left to the Prinz Eugen, an order they had just received.

Approaching about a monkey's distance from Nelson, Prinz Eugen fired four torpedoes at Nelson's port side.

Four 533 mm thick torpedoes struck the Nelson's heavily left-leaning side with a grin, becoming the last straw that broke the camel's back.

With a deafening explosion, the Nelson jerked to the left and lay on the surface of the sea with a cloud of smoke.

When the smoke cleared, leaving only countless oil, hull fragments, and corpses on the surface of the sea, the Nelson's massive body disappeared without a trace.

"The Nelson is sinking, and the Prestige cannot let it go, order the Lützov and the Admiral Hippel Fox, chase it up, and sink it." Lutyans ordered.

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