"Sir!" Cunningham was greeted by two officers of the Secret Security Service, who stood in front of Cunningham and saluted, then handed over their work cards. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Glancing at the two people in front of him, Cunningham casually returned a military salute, and then handed the work card back to the other party.

After all, this is British soil, and German spies, or secret agents, have not been so rampant as to openly kidnap the commander of a British naval fleet at a military dock.

So Cunningham didn't bother to check these documents, he just had to follow the other party. He'd done a lot along the way, enough to make him reticent.

"Is there any update on the naval battle?" Cunningham followed the other party to the car parked in the distance from the dock, asking as he walked.

The other party shook his head after hearing Cunningham's question: "We don't know the specific information, this is top secret, and it is impossible to notify us at this level." ”

Hearing the other man say this, Cunningham nodded. He knew about the timetable of the convoy, which was a top secret that only a few people could keep.

Because there are delays from time to time, the shipping schedule is not accurate, and even General Charles, who is directly in charge of the escort mission, cannot master all the shipping schedules.

Coupled with the joint dispatch of the three fleets this time, although he heard some news, he also knew that this coordination was absolutely unprecedented chaos.

Britain is no longer the world's number one maritime hegemon of the past, its navy is now untrained, the overall quality has declined, and Cunningham, as the commander, knows this very well.

Turning his head sideways, Cunningham saw a mast not far away that was out of the water, which belonged to the battleship Queen Elizabeth.

The battleship Queen Elizabeth was sunk by German bombers in Portsmouth, and salvage work was delayed.

German bombers have been attacking Portsmouth for the last two days, and it seems that it has become an important target that must be destroyed.

Therefore, this huge battleship is still lying in the harbor, bombed again and again by bombs dropped by the Germans.

"It's a shame......" Cunningham sighed as he walked to the car and looked at the exposed mast in the distance.

"yes, that's a shame." The intelligence officer who was about to drill into the co-pilot nodded, and then answered: "I heard that the salvage work is also difficult to complete. ”

Originally, the British military, especially the navy, hoped to salvage the battleship Queen Elizabeth as a whole for repair and use, but the repeated bombing by German bombers made the battleship break into several sections.

The explosion of the shells in the hull of the ship caused the battleship to be particularly badly damaged, and the navy was unwilling to directly dismantle the steel, so the matter has been dragged on until now.

None of the entire salvage plans could be carried out with the interference of German bombers, and besides, there was no good equipment left in this port.

Although the British anti-aircraft artillery units deployed a lot of anti-aircraft guns here, they still could not completely prevent the German bombers from attacking various targets.

Throughout the first half of November, 48 German bombers were shot down at Portsmouth, but the other side did not seem to care about these losses at all.

Cunningham didn't say anything more, and he didn't bother to say anything more. Got into the car directly and followed the other party out of the ruined city.

There is still smoke everywhere and the fire has not yet been completely extinguished. If London was the worst bombed city in Britain, Portsmouth was probably the second.

……

On the vast sea, the battleship Hood undulated with the waves like a piece of driftwood. The battleship was badly damaged, and the repair work was still in full swing.

The two shells fired by the Bismarck hit the power compartment of the Hood, which brought a lot of trouble to the repair work of the Hood.

The Hood, which had lost its power, struggled to repair it in such rough sea conditions. Because most of the power compartment was flooded, it was impossible to recover power for a while.

The USS Eagle waited on the surface not far away, waiting for good news from the damage crews aboard the Hood.

In order to support the emergency repair of the Hood, many professional damage management officers on the USS Eagle were supported on the battlecruiser Hood.

Although the Hood has not made significant progress in repairing the Hood so far, after all, the damage has not deteriorated, which is already a good result.

"It's really dangerous." Standing in the cabin on the side of the USS Eagle, a British officer looked at the Hood in the distance and spoke.

It was raining heavily, and he could only watch the battleship Hood in the distance from the port opening, although there would still be occasional splashes of seawater, but after all, it would not get wet from the rain.

The sea conditions were so bad that even the planes they were carrying could not take off. As a battleship converted into an aircraft carrier, the Eagle does not carry many aircraft.

With a looser way of carrying, the Eagle can only carry about 20 aircraft. It is more like an escort aircraft carrier than a real fleet aircraft carrier.

"The Hood's return to home has at least kept the damage within a bearable range this time." Another officer lit a cigarette in his mouth and said vaguely.

The two of them didn't see it at all, and a white track was rapidly approaching on the sea in the distance between them.

The waves were so big that the two people chatting on the USS Eagle couldn't see the situation in the distance at all.

When the track got closer, the two of them did see the straight white line tumbling on the surface of the sea nearby.

The two of them's eyes widened as they suddenly realized that there was another track coming towards them. The track was only a few dozen meters away from them, and it was getting clearer and clearer.

"Fish...... ......The non-smoking officer shouted loudly as he pointed to the sea not far away, and the other officer impatiently cast his gaze to the place he was pointing.

Then he saw the track of the torpedoes, which had rushed to the foot of where they were.

"Torpedo!" The officer, who still had a cigarette in his mouth and did not have time to take a puff, finally shouted out for his companion what he should have shouted.

Then, the torpedo, which had already rushed to their feet, exploded right at the bottom of the ship. The force shook the two men to the ground, and then the exploding jet of water pushed them into the ceiling overhead.

"Boom!" At a moment that no one expected, a huge explosion caused the USS Eagle to break apart, and before the sea water could rush into the cracks, the second explosion suddenly sounded.

"Oh my God......" On the deck of the Hood, an officer in the damage management department, wearing a raincoat, who was directing the emergency repair work, saw the aircraft carrier Eagle in the distance, half of its body submerged in the rising column of water.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! He shouted loudly, and in the midst of his shouting, the third explosion sounded on the side of the carrier Eagle, and the whole process was not even a dozen seconds apart.

The roar of an explosion in the distance drowned out the shouts of the damage management commander. Only then did he realize that two torpedoes were rushing to the side of the battlecruiser USS Hood.

Finished! After shouting the word in his head, the damage officer closed his eyes.

It is absolutely impossible for a battleship moored on the surface of the sea to dodge two torpedoes. Now the Hood can only eat these two torpedoes.

But in the current state of the Hood, how can it still have the ability to resist the explosion of two more torpedoes? The fragile middle of the hull is already full of holes, and a torpedo at this time will definitely make all the previous repair work come to naught.

In the distance, the aircraft carrier Eagle, which was hit by three torpedoes, had broken in two by this time, and the bow of the ship began to.

A torpedo of 533 mm caliber exploded under water with a power of several times greater than that of a 381 mm caliber shell.

The USS Eagle broke into three pieces in an instant, and then began to sink rapidly. The destroyer on guard in the distance was turning around, and the whole scene was chaotic.

Before the torpedo hit the battlecruiser Hood, the aircraft carrier Eagle, which was the first to be hit, had already begun to sink. Because there were not many damage managers left, the aircraft carrier sank quite quickly.

"Boom!" At the same time as the aircraft carrier Eagle sank, the first torpedo hit the middle of the hull of the Hood. The armor that had been broken and collapsed there was completely reduced to pieces.

The sea broke through some of the compartments and poured into more compartments. The entire battleship trembled at the explosion, and the sound of metal twisting made all the sailors and officers who were still rushing to repair the hull shudder.

The Hood is finished! This is the outcome that the damage management commander is full of. He meticulously repaired the battleship for more than three hours, but after all, he still could not escape the fate of sinking.

Yes, when the second explosion sounded, everything in his mind became real.

The second torpedo that rushed to the battlecruiser Hood hit the ammunition bay, and although the influx of sea water did not cause the Hood to explode, this torpedo opened a second leak.

Waters poured into the hull of the Hood, and the beautiful battleship, which was 12 meters longer than the Bismarck, began to roll sideways, and everything began to get out of hand.

"Order the sailors to abandon ship! Fast! Fast! "The commander of the damage management shouted orders, trying to restore the chaotic status quo.

On the other side, the German submarine, which had fired a full 6 torpedoes, was evading the pursuit of the overcoming destroyers.

The two British destroyers began to search for German submarines one after the other, and on the flanks of the two destroyers, the Hood and the Eagle were already exhausted.

The Eagle soon had only one bow left exposed, and the Hood had flipped on its side, and the side was full of escaped sailors.