The British destroyer, which was on escort duty, bravely rushed towards the German fleet, and while emitting smoke, he began to prepare to fire torpedoes, and the figure of the "Glorious" appeared and disappeared in the smoke.

"That's the Ark Royal, and it's preparing to forcibly take off a warplane!" Lieutenant Commander Helovig, the spearchief of the Admiral Spee, shouted, "Shoot at it with all your might, to stop their plane from taking off!" ”

The "Glorious" was preparing to brave the light rain to force a take-off of the "Swordfish" torpedo aircraft it carried, and several aircraft had already been raised to the deck. The "Admiral Spee" could no longer take care of the British destroyers, raised the speed to 28 knots, and rushed with all his strength to the "Glorious", which was turning into the wind.

At 16:26, the "Admiral Spee" fired a third salvo, and the shell finally hit the target from 16,000 meters away. A 380-mm high-explosive shell hit the middle of the deck of the "Glorious", the flight deck was penetrated, and it also ignited a fire in the hangar. The danger was lifted, and the "Glorious" could not take off the fighters, leaving only the share of slaughter.

The British destroyers fired torpedoes at the "Admiral Spee", which was pursuing the "Glorious", but they were all detected in time by the sonar installed on the German warship and the lookout on the ship, Jihard? The Wagner commander commanded the battleship with great skill and dodged all the torpedoes fired by the British ship. Behind the battleships, the "Prince Carr" and "Danzig" were bombarding the British destroyers with all their might.

The "Prince Karl" concentrated all its firepower on the destroyer "Ardente", which was already approaching a distance of 8,000 meters, while the light cruiser "Danzig" concentrated its fire on the destroyer "Icarus", which was 10,000 meters away. The "Adant" was soon hit by the secondary guns of the "Prince Carr", and the A-class destroyer, built by the British in the late twenties, lost part of its speed and had to turn and burrow into the smoke.

The "Mackenson", which was impatiently harassed by the British destroyers, also turned all its guns to the approaching "Codrington", and the smoke released by the British destroyers on the rough sea could not hide their figures, and they were guided by radar waves. In less than 10 minutes, the main guns of the "Mackensen" fired four consecutive salvos, and with fierce artillery fire, the lead ship of the A-class destroyer with a displacement of 1,540 tons was sunk, and only 13 officers and men survived.

Soon, the destroyer "Adentte" was also hit by the "Prince Karl" one after another, and the hull of the ship caught fire. began to sink rapidly. It seems that this will turn into a one-sided massacre, and although the British destroyer also hit a few shells from the German ship, it is impossible for the British destroyer, armed with six 120-mm naval guns, to do any damage with the "Mackensen"-class battleship with more than 40,000 tons of naval gun water supply.

The "Glorious" was hit by three shells in succession by the "Admiral Spee", the bridge was hit, and 76 officers and men, including the captain of the "Glorious", were killed. Flames broke out in several places on the warship, and the billowing smoke behind it was visible to the naked eye by the crew of the German ship at a distance of 12,000 meters, even in poor visibility weather conditions.

Today it is already in danger.

While the crews of the German warships were cheering, the remaining British destroyer "Acasta" had already maneuvered to the right side of the German fleet and fired four torpedoes each at the "Admiral Spee" and "Mackensen". 4:32 p.m. The "Admiral Spee", who could not dodge, was hit by a one-cell torpedo, which hit the power compartment of the warship, causing more than 1,600 tons of water to enter the side of the "Admiral Spee", and one main engine was damaged, losing a quarter of its power.

The speed of the "Admiral Spee" decreased, and the "Mackensen" passed the flagship and continued to pursue the "Glorious", which was still on the run. The exasperated "Admiral Spee" turned its guns and joined the cruiser, which had finished packing up the other two British destroyers. Attack the destroyer "Acasta" with all its might, which is scurrying around on the sea.

Under a fierce bombardment of German battleships, the hull of the "Acasta" exploded violently. Soon sank into the sea.

At this time, the "Glorious" had already stalled two-thirds of the way, the hull was tilted, and at 16:52, the "Glorious" capsized on the sea after suffering two consecutive blows from the "Mackensen".

17:06. The German warship stopped firing and began to search and rescue the British crew who had fallen overboard.

This naval battle went quite smoothly, and it can be said that it was a massacre in which one side had an absolute advantage. However, the British destroyer stubbornly damaged the flagship of the German fleet, the Admiral Spee, and also won the respect of the German naval officers and men.

Vice Admiral Marshall finally took a breath of anger at the sinking of ten destroyers by the British at the Battle of Narvik, and hastily ended the search on the sea. The German fleet hurried back to the voyage.

The sinking of the "Glorious" fleet was a heavy loss for the British Royal Navy, and the distraught British sent several bomber formations to attack the German fleet one after another. But the German fleet itself followed a heavy aircraft carrier to defend itself, and the "Blucher" became the backbone of the defense, and the fighters of this heavy aircraft carrier, which had achieved nothing in the whole campaign, intercepted most of the British bombers, and shot down 16 of them.

The German fleet suffered almost no losses from the continuous bombardment by the British, and only the unlucky "Admiral Spee" received another 500-pound aerial bomb.

On 3 April, the 1st Battle Group, which had rested in Bergen, returned to Germany, and after the German Army Air Corps had taken control of most of the Norwegian coast, there was little sign of British warship activity in the area, except for submarines. The British sent troops to occupy Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and built a naval blockade line on the Iceland-Faroe Islands-Shetland Islands, which was not as strong as the North Sea defense line during World War I because of the long sea distance of this line, and the German fleet based on the Norwegian coast could break into the North Atlantic at any time and destroy the sea transportation lines on which the British depended.

The 1st Battle Group sailed safely into the naval base in Wilhelmshaven in the afternoon, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Erich Ashwagandnik, sailed safely. Field Marshal Raeder and Admiral Furusawa, Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, personally went to the dock to greet the triumphant return of the 1st Battle Group.

Throughout the Norwegian campaign, the 1st Battle Group sank one British aircraft carrier, one light cruiser, seven destroyers, and sank and captured five British naval auxiliary vessels. In particular, the sinking of the "Glorious" aircraft carrier fleet swept away the adverse effects of the heavy losses suffered at Narvik on the German Navy, and the Kaiser personally sent a commendation telegram to the 1st Battle Group, followed by two congratulatory telegrams from the German Admiralty, from which Marshall could feel the joy of the German naval top brass brought by the naval battle of Shetland.

After a brief welcoming ceremony, Marshal Raeder told General Sù Marshall to complete the repairs of the warships and the rest of the fleet as much as possible, for a larger battle would soon be. (To be continued......) R1292