Just as the minesweeper, J38, was getting farther and farther away, another Stuka roar was heard in the sky.

But this time, instead of swooping down to the ground as usual, Stuka jumped past the crowd on the ground and swooped down on the minesweeper.

“Fuck！ They went to the minesweeper! "What about anti-aircraft guns? And what about our anti-aircraft guns? ”

The eyes of all the soldiers on the beach were drawn to the German bomber formation.

The anti-aircraft guns on the beach also kept firing, but soon the Stukas flew out of their range, and only a few dozen large-caliber anti-aircraft guns continued to fire.

Obviously, the anti-aircraft artillery group, which was still difficult to protect itself, could not help the minesweeper that was targeted by Stuka at all.

Soon, the distinctive screech of Stuka as he dived was heard again.

As Germany's main dive bomber, in addition to its large bomb load, high body strength, and ability to do large-angle dives higher than 80 degrees, the accuracy of dive bombing is also one of its must-have errors in its dive bomb delivery - the circular error of its dive bomb is only about 20 meters.

In addition, the air defense capability of the minesweeper was almost zero, and the German pilots even dived all the way to 200 meters at low altitude and low speed before dropping bombs to level and pull up.

Five 1,100-pound high-explosive bombs smashed into the poor, weak and helpless minesweeper.

The extremely high dive bomb delivery accuracy and the ultra-low altitude bomb delivery distance made only the first of the five bombs close to miss (but in fact, the shock wave generated by the explosion of this close miss bomb still tore a 5-meter-long hole in the left side of the minesweeper), and the next four all achieved direct hits.

The power of the 1100-pound bomb is huge, and the main anti-ship bomb of the dive bomber of the high seas fleet is 1100 pounds, although it cannot directly penetrate the main deck of the new battleship in combat, but it still has a certain threat to the old battleship, and for the cruiser-level warship, the 1100-pound bomb also has the ability to fire it. And now, the poor, only 1,300-ton minesweeper has eaten four in a row.

Four fireballs rose up from the ship one after another, and the entire minesweeper was directly broken down into six or seven sections by aerial bombs, and the fragments of the warship flying around even affected a small boat more than 800 meters away, thanks to the fact that the small boat was returning after transporting personnel, so the debris only caused two crew members to be seriously injured and one crew member died.

As for the soldiers and sailors on the minesweeper, it was not so lucky, and all the more than 300 people on board were killed.

"Damn! Damn it! Brigadier General Lucas, commander of the 31st Division, angrily slapped the breakwater guardrail.

He felt sorry for his own 300 soldiers on the ship, and even more sorry for the minesweeper - God knows when the next thousand-ton warship responsible for transporting his division will come!

The two senior admirals standing beside him were much calmer.

Rear Admiral William Tennant leaned on the fence, looked at the warship that disappeared into the sea in the distance, and said to James Campbell Clauseton, who was next to him with a calm expression, "Is that Kingfisher-class minesweeper called the Bonito?" The port number J38, if I'm not mistaken, it's called the bonito, right? ”

Kreston flipped through a document in his hand, confirmed it, and nodded: "Yes, General, it's called the Bonito." ”

"Record the when, where, and why the Kingfisher-class minesweeper J38 Bonito sank." "The navy will remember them, and the people of the kingdom will remember them," Tennant commanded. ”

"Yes, sir!" Crowston answered, then took out a notebook and wrote down everything about the sinking of the Bonito.

"Our Army will remember them, too." Lucas sighed, calmed down, and said, "It was sacrificed for our army, and the officers and soldiers of the 31st Division will not forget." ”

Tennant didn't take Lucas's words, but looked at the sea for a long time, not saying a word.

After a long time, he said, "The sacrifice of the bonito is just the beginning." More ships will sink in this sea for the sake of Operation Dynamo. Mr. Brigadier General, we are running out of time. ”

"Why do you say that?" Lucas glanced at Tennant and said suspiciously, "Although the German army has recently stepped up its ground offensive, we have been reduced by more than 600,000 troops in the Dunkirk area, and if they want to attack here, I'm afraid it will take at least a week, right?" ”

"No, Brigadier General, you misunderstood what I meant." Tennant shook his head, "When I say not enough time, I don't mean not enough time on land, but not enough time at sea. ”

"Huh?"

"I'm afraid you don't know anything." "According to naval intelligence officers, the German High Seas Fleet has assembled and moved south from its anchorage to their naval base in Den Held, the Netherlands," Tennant said. ”

"Den Held? Wasn't that military base destroyed by your navy? ”

"We destroyed it, yes." Tennant said unwillingly, "But we really underestimated the infrastructure capacity of the German engineering troops, and with their full efforts to repair, although the Den Heldt naval base is still some way from being fully restored, it is completely enough to supply fuel, food and ammunition to the high seas fleet as a temporary supply base for the German army......"

"And what about them...... Is it for us? Lucas asked worriedly.

"Yes, yes." Tennant tightened the fence, "The Home Fleet has already met with the last two capital ships of the Mediterranean Fleet, and the news from the headquarters is that the Home Fleet has set sail at noon today. ”

"The home fleet sailed? That's great! Lucas laughed.

"Don't expect too much from the home fleet." Tennant smiled bitterly, "According to the orders of the Admiralty and the Cabinet, this sortie of the Home Fleet will only contain the High Seas Fleet as much as possible, and will not fight head-on as you think, in fact, the Home Fleet will not be able to confront the High Seas Fleet with 6 large fleet aircraft carriers, 4 new battleships and more than 10 heavy cruisers - the last German fleet raid on Scapa Bay caused us too much damage, before the new battleships and new aircraft carriers in the dockyard were launched into service, It is very difficult for the fleet to defeat the public talk fleet head-on. ”

"Is that so......" Lucas's expression was lost when he heard this, and he also looked into the distance and stopped talking.

The night soon covered the land, and the cold night wind continued to invade the people on the beach, and in order to combat the cold, the soldiers lit piles of bonfires.

Hundreds of campfires and sparkling spots of light — cigarettes from the soldiers' mouths — combine to create a different kind of scenery on the beach, set against the stars in the sky.

With this view, Peter and the others fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, the sun woke Peter, and he rubbed his eyes and stood up, and he was greeted by more people than he had had fallen asleep the previous day.

"God!" Peter stared blankly at the beach, "There must be, more than 200,000 people, right?" ”