Forbes did not associate the shelling in front of him with the smoke from the German positions ahead, and he could not believe that the dense fire was coming from German land. Because the intelligence said that the German artillery could hit more than 18,000 meters at most, and these destroyers were at least more than 19,000 meters offshore, the German artillery could not hit them in any case.

The admiral determined that the shelling must have come from the sea. When Forbis thought of this, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. If it was really the German battleships that came here, then the problem was serious. If it was in other seas, he didn't care even if the entire German fleet came to him, and now Germany did not have a few warships that were the opponents of his main fleet. But now his fleet is trapped in this narrow channel, and it is difficult to even change course, and if he is bombarded by the German fleet, he can only move in one direction like a target, so how can he fight against those elite German warships.

"Did the radar room report? Did you notice the appearance of German battleships near us? Let the destroyers of the rearguard expand the search area, and the destroyers on the right flank pay attention to the search of the sea surface, and let those who are injured immediately report their damage. The ships stopped shelling, lowered their mobile lifeboats, and began to rescue the damaged ships. The entire fleet is anchored, the engines are standby, and they are ready to maneuver to avoid navigation at any time. The radars and observation posts of the ships made every effort to search for the source of the shelling. Why hasn't the radar room returned yet. Forbes yelled in exasperation.

"General, the radar room reported that there are no suspicious targets in our vicinity, there are no enemy ships in our vicinity. I wonder if the shelling will come from the shore? ”

"No way. Their artillery can't hit so far...... Don't...... The Germans had fortress artillery? Forbes hurriedly rushed to the platform next to the bridge, set up his binoculars, and looked at the nearest destroyer that was billowing black smoke.

It was the destroyer lead ship of the 11th Destroyer Detachment "Somalis". Now that the battleship was completely paralyzed, she was now floating at an angle more than 500 meters from the "Nelson", and the entire aft deck of the ship was shrouded in thick black smoke and raging fire. Her bow had also collapsed, and the upper part of the bridge had been blown away, and no one there could have survived, and the admiral couldn't help but observe a moment of silence for Captain Nicholson, who was commanding the bridge at the time, and he was one of the few destroyer experts in the Royal Navy.

The C turret in front of the bridge had vanished without a trace, leaving only the wreckage of a twisted turret platform still smoking. The crew was running around the deck in a panic, and the damage management team was desperately spraying water on the aft deck with water hoses, but anyone could see that the destroyer was hopeless. With a loud bang, a huge fireball rose from the aft deck of the "Somalis", and the entire aft hull of the destroyer exploded to pieces in front of Admiral Forbes.

Fragments of steel plates and parts of equipment flew in all directions like shotguns. Even the Nelson, more than 500 meters away, was affected, and many parts and debris fell from the sky and smashed onto the deck of the flagship, but fortunately, no one was injured in this way.

"Not a fortress cannon."

The Admiral looked sadly at the rapidly sinking destroyer leadership, the crew of which were all scrambling to jump into the sea, and the lifeguard laid down by the Nelson was heading towards the sailors who were struggling in the sea.

"Not a fortress cannon." Again, the admiral affirmed: "If they had been bombarded by the fortress guns, the ship would have been broken in two." ”

He looked over at the other destroyers that had been shot, and now they were lying crookedly on the sea, still burning and exploding, and it was only a matter of time before they sank.

"We've lost four Clans, two F-Class, but we don't even know what sank them now."

"Admiral, the small fleet reported that they had not been shelled, which proves that the artillery fire in front was indeed fired by German land artillery. They have artillery with such a long range! We were fooled! Mills shouted at Forbis from the bridge with his phone.

Forbes heard the captain's report and felt black. Those cunning Germans, those stupid intelligence officers. Now their own warships have been pushed to the edge of the precipice by misintelligence, and if the Germans really also have long-range artillery, then their own fleet will only have two ways to go. The first is to shoot at the German artillery groups on the shore and find a way to suppress the enemy's firepower, the consequences of which are difficult to predict and will likely pay a great price, and these warships are the elite of the British Royal Navy, and any losses are unacceptable.

The second way, before you are bombarded by German artillery like a duck in a bucket, immediately leave this dangerous waterway. That would mean throwing those boats to the Germans. Abandon the ships of the civilians in order to save themselves in battle, abandon this rescue operation, and the honor of the Royal Navy will be lost, and the entire navy will be reviled by the British people. This is an outcome that is absolutely unacceptable to Royal Navy officers who regard honour as their life.

Admiral Forbes decided to go the first route. No matter how severe the situation is and how bad the combat conditions are, the fleet should persist in fighting the enemy to the end, at least until those small ships return to a safe area before they can consider retreating.

"Captain Mills! Order all the ships to start moving their positions, and then prepare for an artillery battle with the German Army artillery, each calculating the coordinates and bearings of those artillery positions. Five minutes later the salvo began. ”

"Yes, General."

"The Germans' artillery is firing again!" A lookout lowered his binoculars and shouted in the direction of the German position.

Admiral Forbes hurriedly ran to the porthole, picked up his binoculars, and looked at the German position. The smoke from this shelling was thicker and higher than the previous one, and it was not from the same position, this time the smoke was further back than the last one.

"Did the Germans have two artillery positions? It's okay, then let's expose them one by one. The battle cruiser detachment was ordered to aim at this new German artillery position, and the other battleships were aimed at the previous German artillery position. Prepare to suppress the shot. Why haven't you moved the ship yet? ”

"General, the engine is running at full speed, and now we are preparing to move forward."

"Boom! ......" Suddenly, a huge column of water rose more than fifty meters to the left of the battleship.

"Oh my God, this is the Fortress Cannon! Sure enough, they had fortress artillery. Order the fleet to move at full speed! ”

Admiral Forbes could tell from the size of the water column that the shell was at least three hundred millimeters. The Germans had more than 300 mm heavy guns, which made Admiral Forbes's heart half cold. It is stupid to want to shoot at a battleship with a fortress gun, it can easily damage or sink a battleship, not to mention that now it has no place to hide, this is a disaster for the Royal Navy, and this disaster is now beginning before its eyes. A series of thick columns of water rose up on the left side of the capital ships of the British Navy, and what made the captains of the ships frightened was that the landing point of those shells was getting closer and closer to their own warships, if they were in the open sea, they would have already begun to maneuver to avoid these shells, but in this narrow mine passage, they had no other way but to increase their horsepower and sail forward, and those captains could not help but curse in their hearts the Admiralty staff officers who had devised such a foolish plan to put themselves in such a dangerous situation.

"Boom ......"

With a loud bang, the battleship Nelson shuddered violently, and the violent shock knocked all the officers on the bridge to the floor, and at the same time a dull whistling sound like a train whistle sounded in everyone's ears.

"Got hit!"

Before the admiral could get to his feet and stand firm, another loud bang and jolt knocked him to the ground again.

At this time, an officer in front of the bridge window pointed to the bottom of the bridge and shouted: "Deck! The foredeck was shot! And before he could finish speaking, a deafening explosion swallowed up his shouts.

A cloud of smoke rose from the front of the bridge. Then another explosion rang out, and a second cloud of smoke shot into the sky. The poignant sound of the fine report rang out violently, and the heart-rending sound of the fine report spread to every corner of this flagship.

"All departments report the damage, quickly!" Admiral Forbes roared angrily, pushing away the captain who was helping him up, and ran to the front window of the armored bridge to look out of the foredeck.

The grim sight in front of him made the battle-hardened admiral almost faint. I saw a large hole about four or five meters in the deck next to the majestic main gun group of this battleship, and the beautiful oak deck nearby was torn to pieces and scattered everywhere, while the steel deck under the oak floor rolled up and twisted into shape, and the situation of the next layer was not clear, only heavy black smoke continued to emerge from the big hole.

This bullet hole alone could not make the admiral afraid like that, what frightened him was the location of the other shell, which actually hit the B turret of the battleship directly, the shell fell directly from the top of the turret, penetrated the top armor of one hundred and seventy-eight millimeters and shot into the turret, and now it is not known whether that shell also penetrated the lower layers of armor, and under the turret is the ammunition depot, if it explodes there after penetration...... The admiral didn't dare to think about it anymore. He rushed to the row of telephones on the wall and picked up the special telephone that led to the ammunition depot.

"Ammunition depot, report the damage! Is there a fire? Hey, hey......" no one answered.

"Immediately fill the ammunition depot of the B turret with water!"

Forbes issued an order to the captain: "It looks like that shell killed everyone there. Regardless of the damage caused, the safety of the ammunition depot is the first priority. ”

As soon as he said this, the battleship began to shake again, and the huge jet of explosive water once again surrounded the "Nelson".

"How many fortress guns did those Germans have! Where did they get so much heavy artillery! Admiral Forbes clung to the handrail by the porthole and wailed.

"Boom...... Boom ......"

Another violent concussion. This time the explosion came from behind the bridge. After this violent explosion, the phone in the bridge rang violently, and Captain Mills quickly picked up the phone.

"General!"

After listening to the phone call, the captain reported to the commander-in-chief in frustration.

"The engine room was shot and caused a fire, and now the damage management team is fighting the fire."

"What? What about casualties? ”

Mills lowered his head and replied gloomily, "No one should survive." To make matters worse, we are now completely out of steam. ”

"God."

Forbes stood by the porthole, he could already feel the battleship slowly slowing down, it seemed that the flagship was about to become a target ship, and a battleship that had lost power was no different from a target ship. The rotation of those turrets, the loading of artillery pitching shells, and the loading of hoisting shells all require power. At the moment when it completely lost power, the battleship was equivalent to having already disarmed.

"Captain, order those who are in charge of the damage to extinguish the fire and repair the ship as soon as possible. Order the battleships in the back, leave the flagships alone and let them immediately carry out suppressive fire on the German artillery positions! ”

"Yes. Checkmate. ”

"Boom ......" The huge water crutches shrouded this flagship for the third time. But fortunately, not a single shell hit "Nelson" in this shelling, and Forbes's hanging heart finally fell.

"General, the other battleships were also wounded, and "Rodney" just gave a distress signal! An officer ran into the bridge in a panic.

"What!"

Admiral Forbes rushed out of the bridge and looked behind him. He was dumbfounded by the sight before him, and saw that the neat queue of battleships following him had dispersed, and each ship had risen one or two thick columns of black smoke in disarray, and he could clearly see that the Rodney, which was closest to him, had also been hit by two shells on the foredeck, and to make matters worse, its A turret had been overturned on one side of the deck by a violent explosion, and a thick smoke and flames were billowing up from the huge mounting hole. The Admiral felt a sudden sharp cramping in his heart, and then he slowly collapsed against the railing.

"General!"

The officers hurriedly rushed over and carried their commander into the armored bridge. "How are you? Checkmate! Mills shouted loudly.

Forbes slowly opened his eyes: "Now...... I put the command of the fleet ...... Deliver to Vice Admiral Breg Rowin aboard the Hood, and inform him at once that he is now in command of the fleet to continue the battle, and if it is necessary to retreat, it may be withdrawn, and I shall bear all responsibility for the failure of this operation. But let him remember that the fleet must not retreat until all the small ships have left there, and until then we must continue to fight, and we must preserve the honor of the British Royal Navy, and we must not abandon those civilians, we must not abandon ...... Maintenance...... Honors ......"

Royal Admiral Forbes closed his eyes forever, and died in his flagship tower with confusion and reluctance.

"Carry the general to his chamber and report to the Hood what had happened here and the general's final orders. Fast! Everybody moves. We're still at war. Go all out to repair the battleship, we have to avenge the general! The captain of the USS Nelson, Colonel Mills, stood to his feet sharply and roared as he issued orders to the dejected naval officers. The officers listened to the captain's words and hurriedly ran to their respective posts.

"Boom......" A violent explosion came from outside the bridge.

Rodney ...... The Rodney exploded......" a lookout shouted in panic.

Mills hurriedly ran to the lookout and looked at the Rodney in the rear. The Rodney's entire foredeck was engulfed in flames, and the huge hull had begun to slowly tilt towards the port side, and her hull was still exploding, flames gushing out from every crack and porthole, and the rumbling explosions and the rattling of metal and the miserable screams of the crew.

Captain Mills watched his sister ship lay dying on the surface of the sea, and a deep fear hung over him. Is the USS Rodney, known as the world's seven battleships, about to sink here? It shouldn't be like this, even if she was going to sink, she should have sunk in battle with a battleship as powerful as him, and she definitely shouldn't have died at the hands of a group of army gunners who couldn't even swim.

"Quickly put down the lifeboat and rescue the people who have fallen overboard the Rodney. Mills roared.

Suddenly, the roar of anti-aircraft guns sounded on the surface of the sea. The six destroyers on the right flank of the fleet began firing at the same time and began to move towards the battleship at a rapid pace.

"Look! German fighters! They were right above us, and the Air Force escort planes were fighting them." One looked and pointed to the top of his head and shouted.

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