In ancient China, there is an old saying, called success is also Xiao He, defeat is also Xiao He.

It means that Han Xin, the general of the Han Dynasty, achieved great achievements because of Xiao He's recommendation, but also because of Xiao He's temptation, he ended up in a different place.

Most of Sir Forbes, who has surrendered, has not heard this sentence, but his situation is similar to that of Han Xin at the beginning.

The British fleet commanded by Forbes, when it was discovered by the French navy in Darlan, was mistaken for a German submarine to encircle and suppress German submarines, so it was not guarded and took the opportunity to deploy a large number of mines.

The German submarine can be said to have inadvertently done the British a great favor, mistakenly inducing the thinking of the French Navy, causing the Forbes fleet to take advantage of the gap that the French did not have time to react to deploy the outer interceptor mines.

And these mines directly caused the French warships to be unable to leave the port for close combat, and had to engage in an artillery duel with the British Navy.

The next thing was very simple, the British officers and men used their powerful artillery skills to suppress the French in long-range artillery battles, destroying almost most of the main warships of the Darlan fleet and destroying the French military seaport of Oran.

"Operation Ballista" could go so smoothly, presumably Forbes himself did not expect it. Among them, the German submarine force, which was behind the blame, very coincidentally played an important role in promoting it.

However, the German submarine forces not only helped the British to victory, but also led to their subsequent defeat.

It stands to reason that the Forbes fleet, in this war, has fully demonstrated its strength.

They defeated the Darlang fleet, which outnumbered them in the total number of warships, and at one point overwhelmed the Leyfel fleet that was several times larger than their own on the return journey.

Two times in a row, the French and Italian navies, which had more capital than them, were almost unable to parry.

However, because of the restrictions of the times and the distraction of continuous operations, they did not discover the German submarine force that had secretly surfaced, and suffered a Don Quixote defeat.

The "wolf pack" submarines who took the blame finally found their way back and saved the war.

The sneak attack on the French fleet, which not so long ago was an ally, already put Forbes to shame in his heart.

was intercepted by the Italian fleet's praying mantis cicada catcher yellow finch behind it, which also made Forbes not relieve his surprise for a while.

Finally, relying on their own strong training level, they miraculously resisted the attack of the superior Italian fleet, but the German submarine force appeared in the main formation of the Forbes fleet with a "bang" and fired torpedoes unscrupulously.

Blessings are incomparable, and disasters are not singular!

A person's psychological endurance is limited after all.

Take, for example, the Gestapo's best interrogation methods.

When interrogating prisoners, the Gestapo often chose to do so when they were tired or sleepy.

Taking advantage of the other party's impetuous emotions and tired body can often make its vigilance relaxed and easy to control.

In the same way, Forbes, who has always been deeply remorseful for "turning against each other" and sneaking up on his former allies, has become haggard and exhausted after experiencing high-intensity battles with the French Navy and the Italian Navy.

And the surprise attack of the German submarine disrupted his square inch even more.

So Sir Forbes, who was mentally exhausted and whose judgment was severely impaired by physical reasons, heard the surrender proposal of his subordinates to save his life, and after a few words of argument, he was unable to support it, so he compromised with this surrender view.

However, after recovering his energy a little, Forbes regretted his behavior.

This is an aircraft carrier formation that has always been extremely combat-effective, and even if it sinks itself, it is much better than handing it over to the Italians.

When the battleship is in the hands of the enemy, in the end, it will not be used by the Italians against their own people?

Far from it, let's take the H Fleet, which provided warships for this operation. Presumably, they did not expect that the warships they provided to the Forbes fleet would follow everything from the Forbes fleet and become the spoils of the Italians in the future, and be used by the Italians against the H fleet to compete for hegemony in the Mediterranean.

One of the most advanced aircraft carriers in the British Empire, HMS Ark Royal, plus a capital battleship, and four newest destroyers.

This is a fat trophy, enough to feed the Italian Navy!

And the Italian fleet, which laughed at this piece of fat, and was stronger, would have the ability to swallow the fatter prey of the H fleet.

"Hey....... I may be a sinner for the ages of the British Empire! Sitting in the prisoner-of-war room set aside by the Italians, Sir Forbes lamented with shame.

Before him, there had never been a precedent for a British naval commander to surrender with an aircraft carrier.

Sir Forbes's large-scale surrender can be said to have set a precedent in the British Royal Navy.

"Commander, I suddenly remembered an incident from 20 years ago." The adjutant of Forbes also had a grief-stricken expression.

"Oh?" Forbes only felt that his body was even more tired, and he didn't even have the strength to turn his head to look at his adjutant, but just moved his mouth and asked, "20 years ago?" What do you remember? ”

"Operation Rainbow!" Forbes' aide-de-camp, said with a long sigh.

Operation Rainbow was also Reinhardt's first decapitation.

At the end of World War I, the German High Seas Fleet was seized in accordance with the armistice. Seventy-four German warships, escorted by the Allied fleet, sailed into Scapa Bay.

At that time, all the firing devices of all the guns in the German fleet had been removed, the number of sailors was limited to a minimum, and the fuel carried was barely enough to allow the fleet to sail out of the waters around the Orkney Islands.

It can be said that the German fleet at that time was even worse than the situation before the Forbes fleet.

However, although they lost the war, they did not lose their spirit.

Fifty-two detained German battleships sank to the bottom of the sea, including 10 battleships and all 5 battlecruisers.

In that battle, the tonnage of warships scuttled by the Germans accounted for 95% of the total tonnage of the entire seized fleet.

Even if the battleship was sunk, they did not leave an enemy to defeat them!

It's just that this kind of ruthlessness and decisiveness that is unwilling to compromise even after the fish is dead and the net is broken, shocked the whole world at the time!

But today, Sir Forbes's fleet can still fight, and it is obviously more valuable than the fleet that the Germans sank at that time, and it is even more invaluable to the enemy....... But he gave it to the Italian Navy.

"At the beginning, I laughed at the Germans that Operation Rainbow was a death throes, and that they were clever." Forbes lowered his head and said faintly: "But now, I have discovered that this is the iron-blooded spirit that the Germans have always been proud of, which we have ignored, and it is also the biggest secret that they can rise again!" ”