So, despite the efforts of the British sailors to avoid the torpedoes, 8 out of 15 torpedoes still hit the Queen Elizabeth.

Although the Queen Elizabeth has mine protection bulges on the port and port sides, it was hit by so many torpedoes, not to mention the Queen Elizabeth, a veteran ship of World War I, even the battleship North Carolina, which was launched by the US Navy a month ago, may have to sink.

With the dull sound of explosions, a series of water columns rose high on the left and right sides of the Queen Elizabeth, and the powerful kinetic energy tore eight long openings on both sides of the Queen Elizabeth's hull, and a huge amount of seawater instantly poured into the hull from these openings, and the whole ship quickly tilted towards the starboard side, which was the most damaged.

At 7:10, the boiler chief of the Queen Elizabeth gave the order to abandon the ship, and the 681 surviving sailors quickly ran to the deck, put on life jackets and jumped into the water.

At 7:15, the Queen Elizabeth, which had been besieged for 40 minutes, capsized due to a large amount of water ingress on the starboard side.

At 7:17, the last section of the Queen Elizabeth disappeared into the sea. The old ship, which had been in service for 26 years and 4 months, completed its last journey.

Watching the Queen Elizabeth disappear into the sea, the officers in the bridges of each ship took off their hats one after another to pay tribute to the Queen Elizabeth and the fallen officers and men.

Baron Tovey held his binoculars, looked at the surviving officers and soldiers of the Queen Elizabeth who were desperately fluttering in the water, and then looked at the battleship Malaya that was being besieged by German planes not far away, gritted his teeth, and said: "Except for the destroyer Purple Quartz, all ships immediately stop rescuing the overboard sailors of the Queen Elizabeth, assemble the Malaya and provide air defense cover for it!" ”

The ships were stunned when they heard the order.

They knew very well that with the current water temperature, those who fell into the water could last for half an hour at most, and it was impossible for a single destroyer of the Purple Quartz to rescue so many officers and men who fell into the water in half an hour.

In other words, Baron Tovey's order was a death sentence for most of those who fell overboard!

"I'm sorry sir...... Are you talking about stopping the rescue of officers and soldiers who have fallen into the water? The captain of the light cruiser Belfast asked, confused.

The light cruiser HMS Belfast, the closest 10,000-ton battleship to the Queen Elizabeth, rushed at full speed to rescue the officers and men who had fallen into the water at the first moment of the shipwreck.

"Yes, Colonel!" Baron Tovey confirmed, "I want all warships except the destroyer Purple Quartz to stop the rescue operation at once and assemble at full speed to the battleship Malaya!" ”

"Forgive me, General!" The captain of the Belfast angrily refused, "I can't watch my colleagues die in the sea senselessly!" They don't deserve to die there! ”

"I don't care what you think, you must carry out my orders immediately! Captain! Baron Tovey accentuated, "Otherwise, you will wait for the court-martial!" ”

"Then let it come!" The captain of the light cruiser HMS Belfast did not have the slightest fear, and still rushed to the overboard officers and men at a high speed of 32 knots.

And as disobedient as the Belfast, there was also the light cruiser Aurora.

"Bastard!" Seeing that the two light cruisers were getting farther and farther away from the battleship Malaya, Baron Tovey angrily scolded directly regardless of his demeanor, "Do you want the Malaya to be sunk by German planes like the Queen Elizabeth?!" ”

When the captains of the two ships heard this, they both looked backwards at the Malaya, which was struggling under the siege of German aircraft.

At this time, two thousand-pound bombs hit the bow of the Malaya, and the fireball formed by the explosion of the bombs soared into the sky, which was spectacular.

"Put the lifeboat down, the rest depends on the luck of these brothers......" The captain of the Belfast looked at the overboard soldiers who were close at hand, and said helplessly to the second mate beside him.

Then he grabbed the radio intercom and said to the commander of the fleet, Baron Tovey: "Sir, I obey the order and immediately move closer to the battleship Malaya......"

Soon, the entire fleet was surrounded by the Malaya, which had been hit by six thousand-pound aerial bombs and had lost nearly half of its air defense, which made it difficult for German torpedo bombers to enter the field to harvest the already badly damaged Malaya.

After several unsuccessful attempts, the German pilots had to fly the torpedo bomber to find another target, hurriedly dropped the torpedo, and then joined up with the dive bomber force and flew towards the mothership.

At 8:12, the first wave of the German naval aviation offensive ended, and 144 fighters achieved the results of sinking the battleship Queen Elizabeth, seriously damaging the battleship Malaya and sinking a 5,000-ton light cruiser, while they also paid the price of 17 dive bombers and 13 torpedo bombers being shot down, and dozens of fighters were damaged to varying degrees.

Watching the German aircraft group disappear into the sky, Baron Tovey breathed a long sigh of relief, and then ordered the radar soldier: "Record the retreat route of the German aircraft, report the route to Cunningham's aircraft carrier fleet, and let General Cunningham send the aircraft group to find the location of the German aircraft carrier fleet as soon as possible!" ”

"Yes, General!"

"Make every effort to rescue the officers and men who have fallen into the water, and after 15 minutes, the fleet will turn to the northwest and move closer to the Cunningham fleet at full speed!"

Under the orders of Baron Tovey, the ships quickly dispersed and began to save the surviving soldiers in the sea.

However, because the water temperature was too cold, only about one-fifth of all the officers and men who fell into the water survived, and these rescued people all suffered frostbite to varying degrees, and some of them were seriously unable to run away with a disability certificate.

Fifteen minutes later, the fleet began to converge on the King George V, and after the formation was completed, it turned to speed up and headed northwest.

But it didn't take long for Baron Tovey to slow down, as the battleship George V's anti-aircraft warning radar once again picked up a huge source of reflection.

The second wave of attack waves from the German aircraft carrier fleet took off!

Ten minutes later, another source of reflection appeared on the George V's radar screen.

At 8:57, the second wave of German aircraft arrived over the British battlefleet.

But before the German pilots could start dropping bombs, a group of more than 40 fighters appeared above the clouds, and they inexplicably began to attack the German planes.

Obviously, these fighters belonged to the British Royal Navy, but the model of these fighters was not the Tubenose Swallow carrier-based fighter that German pilots were familiar with, but a completely new carrier-based fighter that they were somewhat familiar with but had never seen before.

Compared to the pipe-nosed swallow, the performance of these aircraft is much stronger, whether it is flight speed, roll speed, climb speed or firepower, it is much stronger!

For a time, several German fighters were shot down, while the British carrier-based fighter group suffered zero casualties!