【Broadcast】Pay attention to "Reading at the starting point", get the first-hand news of 515 red envelopes, and students who have not grabbed red envelopes after the Chinese New Year can show their skills this time.

"Hit!" The bomber shouted happily, and Captain Uber immediately retracted his flaps and began to accelerate and climb - he had lowered the altitude just now to ensure observation, and then another Hs-293 was quickly activated, and he was ready to do it again - one Hs-293 was at best equivalent to a 500-kilogram bomb, and if it did not hit a particularly important position, only one could not destroy the battleship.

After Captain Uber pulled it up, the other bombs also exploded, "boom", "boom" loud, a total of 3 huge explosions sounded, the slower Rodney, Nelson, Lorraine each ate an Hs-293, only the fastest prestige with the captain's last moment of flexible operation escaped.

At 15:26, the starboard stern of the Rodney hit a bomb again, this time the damage was more serious than the last time, the bomb exploded through the armor at the bottom of the ship, destroying the starboard main engine, the speed dropped to 13 knots, the entire warship swallowed more than 3,000 tons of seawater, and the whole tilted to the right side 9 degrees, and the Nelson was the left and starboard sides each ate one, and was torn open a large mouth with a radius of 2 meters, and the sea water rushed towards the old ship. The most pitiful of all was the Lorraine, whose defensive capabilities were already inferior to the Rodney and Nelson, and the second Hs-293 hit the position between the turret and the bridge, not only penetrating the armor but also causing a fire, and finally causing the ammunition depot to explode violently, and the entire warship burst into a column of smoke like a lit torch. Five minutes later, the French Brittany-class battleship struggled to sink into the sea, and only 73 sailors escaped with their lives.

Once again, the Prestige was a ship of luck. When the second remote-controlled bomb fell, the heavy cruiser Argo next to him blocked it, and the Prestige remained unscathed, but the Argo was blown up and capsized on the spot, struggling to sink into the water.

In 8 bullets and 7 hits, in the face of such a terrifying hit rate, Harwood, Andrew, and others were so frightened that their faces turned dirty. At this time, there were at least 9 minutes before the arrival of the second group of support aircraft. When the third round of Hs-293 hit, the crowd was so numb that they didn't know what to do, so they could only dodge mechanically and draw crosses to pray for God's blessing. Perhaps God heard them, or perhaps the officers and men began to have an experience in dealing with remote-controlled bombs, and only the Rodney was hit again in this round, and the Prestige was close to missing. The flying shrapnel instantly claimed the lives of dozens of sailors operating anti-aircraft guns on the port side.

When the fourth salvo came down, the covering group of the Mediterranean Fleet finally reappeared, and after observing the enemy's reinforcement group coming up, the four He-177 bombers hastily retreated, and without the precise guidance of the bombers, the bombs finally flew into the air, achieving a shot into the sky.

This time it wasn't the P-40, but the Hurricane with the auxiliary fuel tank mounted. It seemed that General Alexander had been forced to rush and grabbed the group and stuffed it into the head of the fleet. But the problem is still a step too late. In the face of the tragic scene on the sea, everyone wanted to cry without tears: the Rodney couldn't hold on to it at first, the overall **** had reached 17 degrees, and the speed had been reduced to only 7 knots, although some balance was restored after water injection, the overall inclination was still 13 degrees, the speed was reduced to only 5 knots, only one-third of the boilers were still functioning, and the rest were all submerged in the icy seawater. Due to the large amount of water, the overall draft of the warship has increased, and the bow of the warship is almost flush with the sea surface, as if a wave can press the warship down.

Harwood could only order them to abandon the ship and then let the destroyers torpedo the old ship to the bottom of the sea.

"Sir, are we still going to intercept the German landing fleet?" Andrew asked with a sad face, 2 of the 4 battleships were sunk, 1 of the 2 heavy cruisers was sunk, and the Nelson still had a lot of injuries, even if the balance of air power was not considered, the remaining strength might not be able to fight the German landing fleet - the other side also had 1 battleship and 3 heavy cruisers.

"Forward...... Even if outnumbered, the Royal Navy had no reason to back down. ”

"But......" Andrew hesitated, not knowing whether to say what he said or not.

"I received information that the main Italian fleet was dispatched...... They will be able to reach the area of engagement at noon at the earliest, and if we do not intercept the landing fleet today, there will be no such opportunity tomorrow. Harwood's mood was depressed, "Where else can we go if we go back?" Will you sit back and wait for surrender in Alexandria or will you slip through the Suez Canal now? ”

Obviously, the latter two options are also what Andrew is not willing to choose.

"Instead of retreating in shame, sink in glory! At least, we fought to the last breath! Harwood's expression became more serious, "Raise the battle flag!" Today we are going to fight to the death with the Germans! Although the British Empire has declined, its sea power, his majesty, still does not allow anyone to provoke! It is our tradition to fight when we see the enemy, there is a Royal Navy that dies in battle, and there is no Royal Navy that survives! ”

"Yes!"

Andrew only felt that the blood on his body was boiling, and the soldiers' originally low fighting spirit became excited!

But Harwood's struggles were doomed to be futile!

At 4:49, the German naval aviation, which had secretly transferred from the Black Sea to Crete, was dispatched, and 48 Bf-219s (all of which had been replaced by HNA fighters) covered the 64 Ju-87Cs that pounced on them, and although the 36 Hurricanes tried their best to resist, they were no match for the Bf-219s, but they still shot down 7 Bf-219s and 6 Ju-87Cs.

At 5:27, the German Navy completed all the attacks and sailed away, the battlecruiser Prestige, the battleship Nelson, the heavy cruiser Carybdis and other major ships were all sunk, in addition to the loss of 4 destroyers, Vice Admiral Henry Harwood refused the request of his subordinates to let him move, and finally sank with the flagship, Andrew returned to Alexandria according to his last order, and the whole fleet was finally left with only 4 destroyers, 3 of which were still billowing with smoke, However, their desperate counterattack also caused a lot of damage to the HNA formation, and the fleet lost 6 Bf-219 and 8 Ju-87cs one after another.

In the evening, at the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, Winston-Churchill received a farewell message from the Mediterranean Fleet: "This fleet has fought to its last breath and sunk with honor...... God bless Britain! The former First Admiral couldn't help but cry sadly, in just one day, the main force of the Mediterranean Fleet with 4 battleships/battlecruisers became history, although Rodney, Nelson, and Prestige were all old ships, and the Lorraine was a captured ship, but a fleet like this one was basically wiped out, and the death of the commander of the Vice Admiral's fleet had never appeared since the beginning of the war, and his eye sockets sank deeply, as if he had aged 10 years in an instant.

The circle of people around him looked at him, and no one knew how to comfort him.

After a long silence, Churchill held back his grief and regained his fortitude, and asked the British Chief of Staff, Alan Brooke, "The navy has also failed, and now what should we do?" ”

"The priority now is to keep Egypt. As long as it resists for 20 days, all the more than 100,000 landing troops and the support of thousands of aircraft can be quickly put into the war against Germany, and only by keeping Egypt and the Suez Canal can the British Empire have a future. Brooke gritted his teeth and said, "In order to keep Egypt, we can only sacrifice the Eighth Army for the time being, and suggest that Montgomery give up his unrealistic illusions about Tobruk, and immediately retreat with strong forces and resist the German landing force in Port Matru, in case he can't resist, then temporarily detour and retreat to El Alamein to form a defensive line, so as to buy time for General Alexander to reorganize the Egyptian forces and defensive line, as for the other forces in the direction of Tobruk, they can only let them fight with the Germans until the last breath." ”

"Which troop to draw? 10th Panzer Division? ”

Brooke shook his head: "This point of strength is not enough, at least 2 armored divisions, 1 infantry division, and it must be a competent force." In addition, I suggested that General Montgomery should choose all the troops himself, and if possible, not all the native troops—my suggestion would be to choose the New Zealand and Australian divisions, which were relatively well positioned and more combat-ready. ”

Everyone understood for a moment what Brooke meant: not choosing the native troops did not mean that they were not trusted or that the British Empire was willing to sacrifice itself to make way for the Dominion army, but on the contrary, at the moment when Great Britain was facing the most critical situation, it was necessary to unite the forces of the Dominions with all their might, and if the Dominions were sacrificed each time, it would be difficult to guarantee that they would not complain.

Churchill struggled for a long time, and finally nodded slowly, agreeing to the suggestion - the mood and situation now were completely different from the Dunkirk retreat.

"Besides......," Brooke hesitated and struggled to utter a second sentence, "if possible, General Montgomery should take charge of the rearguard and command the rest of the forces to entangle Guderian." ”

"No way!" Clement Attlee, leader of the Labour Party, wartime deputy prime minister and minister of state for the Dominion, was the first to jump in dissent, "A vice admiral has been sacrificed this afternoon, and no more lieutenant general can be sacrificed or captured, and there are not so many lieutenant generals in the British Empire to squander." ”

At Attlee's words, both Churchill and Brooke shook their heads slowly. Churchill shook his head Attlee was prepared - the prime minister has been quite unhappy with Montgomery recently, and has been pondering a change, but why would Brooke make such a suggestion? Could it be that the Prime Minister wants to take the opportunity to purge Montgomery? At present, the great enemy is in a critical situation, shouldn't we be more united?

Ps. chasing more children's shoes, are there any free appreciation tickets and starting coins~ The countdown to the 515 red envelope list is over, I'll pull a ticket, ask for an increase and appreciation vote, and finally rush a handful! (To be continued.) )