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Outside Åland Bay, the last of the golden sun slowly submerges below sea level.

Thousands of tons of spilled heavy oil have stained the sea with ink. The huge whirlpool of 10,000 tons of steel sinking rapidly engulfed England's pride like a black hole. Admiral Somerville, who was carried by two officers and jumped into the sea at the last moment, was unconscious with multiple fractures, and the Hood, which had cast a huge shadow ten minutes earlier, was still floating with a few debris engraved with the ship's name. After hours of confrontation, counting from the first shell, the Strasbourg fired its nineteenth fire, singing the imperial elegy of the British Imperial Royal Navy, which was once invincible in the seven seas, like an angel with broken wings, falling to the earth.

Revenge!

Revenge!

Revenge!

At 17:25 Dakar time, Vice Admiral John Tovey raised his flagship flag on his battleship George V. As the new flagship was confirmed, a Z-shaped flag fluttered up right behind. The word Z is the last of the twenty-six letters, and when the flag is raised in front of it, it means a decisive battle!

The sons and grandsons of Sir Nelson did not bow their heads in the face of great sorrow, but on the contrary, Vice Admiral John Tovey's Z-signal ignited the fighting enthusiasm in the bones of the Royal Navy. Before the start of the second phase of the Battle of Mirskbier, Lieutenant General John Tovey issued two orders. The first, in the name of the commander of the H Fleet, ordered two Avenger-class battleships and two heavy cruisers in Malta to move quickly towards Sardinia, blocking the way for the French fleet to return home. At the same time order all British battleships in the Mediterranean to join the battle and open fire on any French naval ship that it sees! As soon as the order was issued, he regrouped his formation, following the Richelieu movement with the George V, Determination, and Warrior, while the carriers Ark Royal and the Dreadnought took advantage of the last opportunity before nightfall to attack with capable aircraft.

Seventeen:33. Vice Admiral John Tovey chose the battleship Richelieu, the first target!

No one knows who fired the shell that hit the Hood, and the four French battleships that broke through at that time were all aimed at the Hood, and the data of the guns of the capital ships of various countries are absolutely secret, so Vice Admiral John Tovey and everyone subconsciously thought that it was the 380mm main gun on the Richelieu that sank the Hood, because it was only a pure cutting-edge fast battleship, and Dunkirk and Strasbourg were actually mini battleships similar to the German class.

But whether it was a misunderstanding or a vow to take revenge by sinking the best French battleship, the remaining three British battleships and all the carrier-based aircraft took their anger out on the Richelieu. Thirty-seven gulls and swordfish of the sea died. Drop bombs or torpedoes at close range after rushing into the circle of anti-aircraft fire. The white waves and wakes show the unyielding determination of the Royal Navy! Although the Richelieu under the command of General Sur rushed to the left and right, it was still cornered at 18:20 by three waves of swordfish torpedo planes with ten torpedoes. After avoiding two torpedoes on the port side, the Richelieu, which had not yet had time for sea trials, was eventually hit by three torpedoes in a row on the starboard side. Especially the second one. With a direct hit to the stern bilge, a piece of detached armor fell off and hit the propeller due to the explosion, causing the Richelieu to plummet to 21 knots.

"General, you must leave immediately!" Terrible sirens sounded from the Richelieu, and several officers pulled Sur to evacuate. However, Jean Sur was reluctant to take the capital ship, and in the end the captain had to forcibly order the guards to forcibly take the commander away. The move of General Soul's change of flagship meant that the Richelieu, known as the pride of France, had a hard time getting rid of the pursuit of British capital ships. That's when it happened. In order to protect the Richelieu, the Provence, which had lost speed due to successive hits, chased after it from behind, covered in fire. The signal light on the mast flashed and flashed, saying "For France!" Long live Provence! Light signals. Forced to the port side of the Richelieu, the hull was used to separate the guns of the three British battleships.

The fiery Provence instantly became a cannonball magnet, and ten minutes later, two 381-mm armor-piercing shells fired by the Resolve pierced the main armor belt from 14,000 yards away. Not to mention such an old battleship as the Provence. Even Dunkirk or even Richelieu could not withstand the damage of the torn main armor belt. Following the Hood. The Provence exploded in an instant, and in five minutes the deck tilted seven degrees! But even so, the Provence did not abandon its cover duty, and fired at the British fleet with its four remaining main and secondary guns, while blaming the lights of "Long live France".

Until the last moment before sinking, the stern guns were still firing!

If the British Royal Navy is fighting with revenge, then the French navy, whose country has failed, is completely relying on a naval spirit that will never give up, gritting their teeth and fighting to the death. In the end, the Richelieu and all the French soldiers were almost in tears, and they released smoke to say goodbye to their slowly sinking comrades.

At 19:02 a.m., the Provence disappeared with 733 sailors in the warm sea of less than 25 nautical miles outside Oran Bay.

In just over three hours, the British lost the battlecruiser USS Hood, three destroyers and seven aircraft, and the USS George V, HMS Resolve and HMS Warrior were also damaged, with the USS Resolve also losing a turret. Similarly, the French Navy lost the battleships Brittany, Provence and two destroyers, while both Richelieu and Strasbourg were torpedoed at speeds of less than 22 knots, with only the seaplane carriers Dunkirk and Commander Tarst surviving. As night fell, the carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Intrepid had to withdraw all their carrier-based aircraft and stop the attack. But the battle did not stop because the aircraft carriers could not be dispatched at night, on the contrary, Vice Admiral John Tovey had no intention of letting the French fleet go back, so he immediately ordered a parallel pursuit, and at the same time let the destroyers accelerate and continue to harass. Similarly, Jean Sur will not give in, and orders six super destroyers, including the Dreadful, to launch a night attack to stop John Tovey from covering the retreat of the fleet.

The pursuit continued until the next morning, when the two fleets met again in the Balearic Islands, opposite Algiers.

"Swordfish!" The whistling swordfish torpedo machine almost became a nightmare for Jean Sur and the French Navy. Due to the severe lack of air cover, the French fleet had to rely on several seaplanes to drive out the British group. But in addition to the Swordfish, the British also had the Sea Gull fighter and the more powerful Pipenose Swallow, which not only combined to shoot down three French seaplanes, but also blocked the French fighters who arrived from Corsica to support.

The roaring British fleet put the French fleet in trouble again, and the destroyers protecting the three battleships were constantly spraying fire dragons into the sky. "Seven o'clock position. Three torpedoes! Circumvent! "The four Swordfish quickly approached the wounded stern of the Richelieu from a low altitude, and the two destroyers towed behind the fleet to protect were torpedoed by the opposing side, although they kept firing." Concentrate your fire and aim it in front of it! "Due to the special design, the Richelieu has no main guns in the stern, only three triple 152 mm naval guns, and only twelve twin 100 mm anti-aircraft guns in the whole ship, and can only concentrate eight anti-aircraft guns when firing backwards, not even small-caliber rapid-fire guns. So I saw the torpedoes coming quickly. The sailors had to strafeze the direction of the torpedo with anti-aircraft machine guns on the aft deck.

However, this defense did not work, and just as the Richelieu was about to complete its turn to evade, a fourth torpedo hit the stern again. This torpedo is deadly! Not only did it destroy three of the four propellers, but it also caused a large amount of water to flood the stern. In order to save the ship, the captain of the Richelieu had to order the bow to be filled with water to maintain balance. This caused the ship's speed to plummet to less than 15 knots!

At nine o'clock in the morning, faced with the trouble of the Richelieu being hit again and slowing down, Sur ordered the Dunkirk and Strasbourg to slow down as well. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Vice Admiral John Tovey led three battleships to take the initiative to close the distance and launch another artillery attack. At 9:40, the artillery battle began again, and the three British battleships, bent on revenge, completely ignored the Dunkirk-class threat. All fire was directed at the Richelieu.

At 9:35, the Resolve was hit by the Dunkirk and Strasbourg in succession, two turrets were destroyed, and the hull was flooded in large quantities. Withdrawn from the battle under the protection of two destroyers.

At ten o'clock sharp, just as the British sailors spotted the approaching formation of French cruisers, the Richelieu, which had been hit by successive hits of the George V and the Warrior, tilted badly, despite the best efforts of the captain and the damage management team. But in the end, it was still impossible to save the 40,000-ton beast, and had to order the ship to be abandoned. At last. In order to avoid being captured by the British, Jean Sur ordered the destroyer Terrible to torpedo the Richelieu after most of the sailors had evacuated.

At 10:40 a.m., the Richelieu sank in deep waters fifty nautical miles southeast of the Balearic Islands. Sixteen hours after the sinking of the Hood, Vice Admiral John Tovey and the Royal Navy completed their revenge.

The image of the Richelieu being sunk brought tears to the eyes of the French fleet, and also made Admiral Sur understand that he could not win with the only two capital ships left, and even if he could win again, he would definitely be sunk in the end. So he immediately asked the cruiser to stop pestering and go home with all his might to protect the two Dunkirks. But the doom of France was not over, and just as the fleet was about to cross Mallorca into the Corsica air defense circle, two Avenger-class battleships arriving from Malta at high speed overnight blocked the way home. Faced with the encirclement and interception of five British battleships, Suhr had no choice but to change course, turn around and move towards Sardinia, entering the dangerous Tyrrhenian Sea. The Tyrrhenian Sea was almost an inland sea of Italy, but in the face of the onslaught of two French battleships and a dozen cruisers, two cruisers and several destroyers of the Italian Navy did not even dare to intercept them, and fled back to Naples with the open door directly.

After learning that five British battleships were pursuing the remaining French fleet into the Tyrrhenian Sea, Musonisuni immediately smiled, believing that he had a chance to force the French navy to surrender to him, so he immediately sent more than fifty fighters and bombers to intercept the British fleet, and also took the initiative to signal Jeansur that they could avoid Naples.

Musonili would have been mistaken, it would be impossible for France to surrender to Italy to anyone! So let Sur directly order the cannon to shoot down the two Italian seaplanes that had come to contact overhead, and rush through the most dangerous Gulf of Messina, enter the Ionian Sea, and sail towards the anchorage of Patras in neutral Greece.

The Brittany capsized, the Provence sank, the Hood sank, the Richelieu sank.

George V was wounded, Resolve was seriously wounded, Warrior was wounded, Dunkirk was wounded, Strasbourg was wounded.

The news of the Battle of Mirskbil ignited the contradictions hidden deep in the hearts of Britain and France! In particular, the Hood and the Richelieu are the naval symbols and symbols of their respective countries! The sinking of both ships made the two countries completely tear their faces, and even Charles de Gaulle and Free France became traitors, and even Hitler stood up and accused the British government of shameless behavior, and vowed to destroy Britain, defeat the British Navy, and avenge France.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister! Please let your fleet suspend the pursuit, and if it continues like this, no one will benefit anyone. ”

As soon as Churchill set foot in Alexandria, Yang Qiu and Charles de Gaulle appeared in front of him together. After the three of them shook hands with each other, Yang Qiu's expression was serious: "From the standpoint of you, even me and General de Gaulle, we will not allow the existence of a fleet in the Mediterranean Sea where we are not aware of our enemies. But there is already too much blood, and for the sake of our common enemy, I hope to gain some time to persuade the French government to resolve their contradictions politically. ”

Churchill was willing to fight, and after learning that the Hood had been sunk, he realized that Britain and France were afraid of a complete break. But it was also impossible to get him to give up the destruction of the French navy, because no one could guarantee that Darlan and the Vichy government would immediately defect to Germany when the remaining warships returned. The Mediterranean is England's life, and it must not be abandoned! So he lit his cigar and looked at Charles de Gaulle next to him.

A pair of deep, but full of angry eyes, made Churchill have to think about the future relationship between Britain and France after the fight continues completely, so after thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth and agreed: "According to the neutrality law, Greece can only take in the French fleet for forty-eight hours." ”

"Mr. President, we will not allow any naval power that is not an ally to operate in the Mediterranean, this is my bottom line, and it is England!"

"I'll do my best." Yang Qiu was very serious