"Hahaha! Where are you going? Rear Admiral Bey burst into laughter aboard the Scharnhorst, his perseverance, mad dog-like chasing spirit finally paid off, and three hours after spotting Christopher's formation, he not only managed to catch up with the other side, but also took the lead in the hit, relying on the Tirpits's deterrent interception.

Just when the British were panicking to avoid the Tirpitz and turning course to escape, not only was the speed forced to slow down, but also quickly approached the German warships behind them, and Rear Admiral Bey kept his three warships firing fiercely. As a result, the Sussex was directly hit by the Scharnhorst at a distance of less than 18,000 meters, and a 283mm shell landed on the anti-aircraft gun position closest to the bridge, not only the gunners were killed directly, but also destroyed the entire front of the bridge, and all the personnel around the bridge were killed mercilessly, only the conning tower resisted the shrapnel with relatively heavy armor.

Before the British could react, the Scharnhorst, which had a clear result and landing point guarantee, and a greatly improved hit rate, seized the opportunity to continue firing, and continued to pour shells on this thin treaty-type heavy cruiser, and an armor-piercing shell directly penetrated the deck and drilled into the power room, and the Sussex lost power in half a minute, and its speed dropped to only 20 knots.

Since the British cruiser formation was advancing in a column, in order to avoid colliding with the flagship that had suddenly slowed down, the heavy cruiser Norfolk that followed behind was forced to slow down and turn to the right, trying to bypass the flagship and continue to advance, but was blocked by the Lutzov coming from the north, and the two sides began to bombard each other with naval guns, and the distance between the two sides fell to more than 16,000 meters at once. For Lützov's 283mm guns, this was a relatively satisfactory engagement distance, but for the 203mm guns on the Norfolk, it seemed a little farther and less lethal. Now the British army did not have the courage to exchange fire, and the Germans still had a Tirpitz in their hands, and when the 380mm caliber shells kept falling around the ships, all the British officers and men had only one word in their minds - escape!

At this time, there were two destroyers in the formation, one was the Nubian, and the other was the Tatar (both Tribal-class), seeing that the flagship was in difficulty, they rushed up desperately and prepared to use the torpedo to force the German warship to turn, but they were hit by the shells fired from the Hippel before they could reach the appropriate distance to launch the torpedo, and the Nubian bridge that was the first to be shot was hit by a 203mm shell, and the entire bridge burst open instantly, as if people were asking hell, and a total of more than 60 officers and soldiers around and inside were killed instantly, It didn't take long for it to sink first. The Tatar had slightly better luck and was hit by the Hippel on the left side of the front after completing a torpedo launch, capsizing due to excessive water ingress. And the torpedoes he fired were easily avoided by the German ships because of their density.

But their sacrifice did not win more life for the other warships, while the attention of the Norfolk was on the Lützov, the Sedlitz opened fire from its flank and rear, and joined forces with the Lützov to aim for the attack, while the Prinz Eugen single-mindedly poured ammunition on the light cruiser Linsan (Linsan class), and the 5,200-ton Linssen did not dare to engage at all, so he just took the road and fled, while the Sussex, which had greatly reduced its speed, was left to the Scharnhorst to deal with it alone.

At 12:26, Christopher had no choice but to issue an order to disband the formation, requiring that although several bullets had been hit, the Norfolk with the Linxian at a normal speed would go first, and the flagship would provide cover, but it was too late to retreat at this time, and Vice Admiral Kumet ordered the Tirpitz to fire at Norfolk all the time, and the 380mm shells continued to explode on the water around the Norfolk, stirring up one after another columns of rushing water, and Norfolk struggled to shuttle in it, and his whole body was shrouded in it.

At 12:31, the Norfolk was accurately hit by the Tirpitts, after an earth-shattering explosion, the treaty-type heavy cruiser was blown open a large gap of 5 meters square, the sea water rushed in, less than 2 minutes the whole ship was tilted 20 degrees to the right, before the captain issued an order to abandon the ship, the Tirpitts hit Norfolk again, directly broke the warship in two, and less than 80 of the more than 700 officers and men on the ship finally escaped their lives.

At this time, Sussex was still stubbornly fighting the Scharnhorst, and his condition was very bad, although he also hit the Scharnhorst a few times, but it was not a fatal part, except for the smoke that rose one after another, there was no obvious damage, and the fire he faced became more and more ferocious - after the Tirpitts sank the Norfolk, the vacated Lützov and the Sedlitz poured all the ship's firepower into the heavy cruiser, which had a speed of only 17 knots.

At 12:48 p.m., the Tirpitts began to fire a salvo against the Sussex, and the heavy cruiser, which was in disarray above deck and had only the first turret left to use, finally could not hold on, and after a few 380mm or 283mm shells in a row, it began to sink due to excessive flooding, and in the last minute of the sinking, the only naval gun he could use was still fighting back.

From the beginning to the end of the firefight, the Royal Navy lost 2 heavy cruisers and 2 destroyers in only 35 minutes, only the wounded Lin Xian escaped from the battlefield with high speed and agility, and counting the loss of the Loyalty a few hours ago, the entire cruiser formation was beaten by the Germans in just 5 hours, leaving only 1 wounded light cruiser and 1 destroyer, and the losses were very heavy.

For the Royal Navy, the most formidable enemy was now beginning to merge: the Norwegian formation, including the Tirpits, and the North Sea Fleet from home were all united, and in addition to a large number of capital ships, there were 2 aircraft carriers behind them, and in just one morning they sank 5 warships, and the price paid was only more than 1,000 large-caliber shells and several secondary guns and anti-aircraft guns on the Scharnhorst.

When Raeder ran to the Chancellery, he was so excited that he told Hoffman the good news of the surface fleet's victory, he was also stunned, and then reacted again and asked: "You relied on traditional artillery battles to take out 2 British heavy cruisers?" ”

"Yes! Monarch. ”

Hoffman quickly calculated: in the ambush of the JW-51 fleet, the Norwegian formation would have killed a Kent-class, and with today's results, it seems that there are not many British heavy cruisers. He immediately laughed: "So Churchill only had 4-5 heavy cruisers available in his hands?" ”

"It should be. It will take at least 2 years to build a treaty-type cruiser, and it will take only 20 minutes to finish them out......"

But Hoffman looked at the map and immediately thought of something else, his brow furrowed, and he couldn't bear to interrupt him at Raeder's blushing face, but there was something he had to say at the end.

"But, my dear Admiral, what was the original purpose of our tsunami plan? Are we sending all our capital ships just to deal with the cruisers of the British? His tone was a little anxious, "Our goal was initially to use the Tirpitts to distract the main force of the British Home Fleet, and then create an opportunity for the main fleet to break through to the Atlantic, but now it's better that you merge the two fleets together, will the British still be fooled?" Or are you going to fight all the way through? ”

"This ......" Raeder was also dumbfounded, as if a duck had been grabbed by the neck when he sang the most jubilantly, and the old marshal was speechless after babbling for a long time, and waited for a while before explaining, "This is the suggestion of the Japanese advisory group, General Machar sent a telegram asking for instructions, and we all agreed with the change plan." ”

Hoffman knew that Raeder was not bringing up Ozawa and the others at this time to absolve himself of responsibility, but to convince himself with the subtext - this was a decision agreed upon by the staff and advisers.

Hoffman sighed: "It is not surprising that the Japanese came up with the idea -- although the command level of the Japanese navy is higher than ours, some of their officers are sometimes prone to make mistakes in petty family. ”

Raeder nodded knowingly, he was also a tried and tested admiral, and it was easy to figure it out.

"Anyway, it's always good to destroy enemy warships, but what to do next? How are you going to break into the Atlantic in a safe way? ”

"Admiral Machar suggested that the fleet move in a northwesterly direction as a whole, and then make a second formation at night and re-divert it in the middle of the night."

"But we lost five precious hours for this."

"Führer, you can't just think like this, the British have learned the information of the Tirpitz formation through spies, and the location of our main formation through the cruiser, in fact we no longer have the conditions to sneak into the Atlantic, and we will inevitably fight the British once, if I have to face these cruisers, I would rather waste five hours to destroy them now than see them in a future war - the concept of them fighting us alone and with the British battleships fighting us is different."

"Well, you've convinced me, I'll come back to the Admiralty at 8 o'clock in the evening to hear your latest report."

"What's next?" In the Admiralty in London, a gloomy Pound was also asking this question.

"If the enemy fleet gathers together, Fleet E alone will not be able to stop them, and it must merge with Fleet W." Tovey thought for a moment and said, "Or the two fleets, although they are not combined, should not be deployed more than 100 nautical miles away to facilitate timely support." ”

"Where do you want to deploy their central location?"

"In the sea about 300 nautical miles south of Iceland, no matter which waterway the enemy passes through, we still have a chance to catch them." Tovey thought about it for a moment, "When the Independence and Pennsylvania arrive, we will have a better chance." ”

"That's all for now." (To be continued.) )