On 25 February, the weather over the Norwegian Sea was surprisingly good.

But in the still cold Norwegian Sea, black smoke billowed out, and one after another steel behemoths that humans had piled up with modern industry and technology were floating on the sea and burning, entering the water, and sinking inch by inch.

Soon after the start of the second wave of large-scale air raids, the fighting spirit of the remnants of the British Royal Navy was completely broken. All the ships that could still move turned their bows and fled in all directions.

At half past eleven, the captains of the faster cruisers and destroyers received an urgent order from London to keep your ships as safe as possible, and to "leave some seeds for the Royal Navy."

As for the six battleships that were badly damaged and could not run fast, although their hearts were painful, they were already in the upper echelons of London at this time, and they all knew that they had escaped. In order not to drag down the rest of the light ships, the Navy received an order to "take care of your own escape".

The battle that followed turned into a one-sided pursuit and encirclement of the German Navy against the British Navy.

At 12:05, the battleship Resolve capsized and sank into the sea. Before sinking, a British destroyer and a German destroyer, leaning on the side, received more than six hundred sailors on the sloping deck of the Yan zhòng.

The British destroyer that saved people was also scarred on its own body, and its speed had dropped to twenty-eight knots. As he was rescuing the sailors of the Determination, the remaining cannons on the ship were covered with gun jackets to show that there would be no more hostile behavior.

Next to the battleship Resolve, which was about to capsize, another German light cruiser and a destroyer were "watching", and the British destroyer, who had been rescued afterwards, surrendered to the German Navy. It was also the first British warship to voluntarily surrender to the German Navy since the war.

As a result of the British destroyer's behavior, the sailors on board the Resolve had the highest survival rate in the battle.

The battleship Nelson was subjected to another wave of air raids at 12:10 a.m., and after swallowing two more torpedoes and multiple bombs, it capsized to the left and sank at 12:40 p.m. Since there were no warships nearby at the time of the sinking, a large number of sailors who fell into the water froze to death. The German destroyers, who arrived a little further afterward, only picked up more than 40 half-frozen sailors from the sea, which was also the last survivor of the battleship Nelson.

The battleship Royal Oak, which had escaped at less than 15 knots, was besieged by a combination of German destroyers and torpedo attack aircraft, and the port side, which had already eaten two torpedoes, was hit with three more mines, and the ship soon capsized and sank.

Before sinking, in order to embody the "chivalry" of the Germans, the German destroyer was ordered by Elenhan. Approaching the ship to rescue the sailors. However, due to the speed of the capsizing, only 180 sailors could be rescued in the end.

The battleship Malaya was "personally" pursued by the battleship Scharnhorst. Due to too many bombs in the previous period, the speed of the Malaya had dropped to eighteen knots, and it was soon overtaken by the Scharnhorst.

A fierce artillery battle ensued, but it was an unfair artillery battle.

At this time, the battleship Malaya had only one turret and two main guns that could fire normally, while the opponent had nine sixteen-inch guns. The artillery battle lasted fifteen minutes, and nine of its shells were hit, and the last working turret on the Malaya was dumbfounded. Then the Scharnhorst approached 15,000 kilometers and opened fire continuously, hitting it six more rounds. One of the shells pierced the unwatered rear magazine, causing a detonation. The ship sank to the bottom of the sea at 12:15 p.m. Only six sailors were rescued from the ship.

The battleship Courage, the lightest British battleship, fled westward at nineteen knots. Lin Han's battleship Grensenau was in close pursuit. The ship was considered by the British Navy to be the most promising battleship, so the remaining light ships of the Royal Navy followed to cover the retreat.

The Grensenau had been engaged in an exchange of fire with the Spirit since 23,000 kilometers, and with the advantage of its speed, it had been rushing forward to 19,000 kilometers. In the process, the British destroyer launched several lightning offensives, forcing the Grensenau to make two turns to avoid torpedoes. In the process, the destroyer fleet of the German side was also colored. With the same lightning strikes, the courage was forced to turn to evasion and slow down the ship.

Although in the process, the Gottan hit the Spirit six times before and after. However, none of them dealt a fatal blow to him, destroying only one turret and killing his opponent twice.

Due to the desperate resistance of the British Navy, the naval battle was fought until 12:30 a.m., and the result was that at 12:30 a.m., the naval aviation, which had reappeared in the air with complete ammunition, appeared in the air to "grab the head."

Then it was besieged by the joint efforts of more than 20 torpedo attack planes and the same number of dive bombers. After being hit by four aviation torpedoes on the port side, the Spirit was hit by a German destroyer with three torpedoes, and capsized to the left at 1.05 minutes on the same day, and only about 160 of the ship's more than 1,500 sailors were rescued.

The battle lasted until half past two, when the home fleet of the British Navy was attacked from Scapa Bay. At this moment, there are very few ships left that can still float on the sea.

The five battleships that had been taken care of had all been sunk, and the remnants of the heavy and light cruisers were sinking into the sea one after another under the joint efforts of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft that were constantly taking off and landing and working with surface ships. By the end of the battle, only four of the twelve cruisers involved barely survived. Of the 22 destroyers that participated in the war, only eight survived.

As for the last battleship of the Royal Navy, HMS Millis the "longest-living" one.

Because its steering gear was stuck in the past, it could only spin in place at sea, and could not get out of the battlefield at all. The Germans considered him to be the meat of their belly, and they were busy dealing with the other capital ships, and they only left a few destroyers to keep an eye on for the time being, and did not rush to sink him, so he was fortunate to live a few more hours.

At 3:15 p.m. on 25 January, the battleship Ramillis finally ended its embarrassment of spinning in place and could barely move at a speed of seven knots, thanks to the difference in speed between the left and right propellers.

But the Ramillis couldn't escape at all.

Around the Ramillis, a whole fleet had been formed: two Shane-class battleships, two cruisers, and six destroyers were collectively "watching" him—the few German ships were now chasing the remnants of the other British ships that had escaped.

And above the Ramillis, more than two dozen planes with bombs and torpedoes were circling back and forth, buzzing.

At this time, the Lamilis was surrounded by thick smoke, and the four remaining turrets were either blown up or dumbed down by the German ship's 406-mm naval guns, and it had completely lost its artillery combat capability. Although it was only a little more than two hours before dark, the battleship Ramillis, far from its homeland, had no chance of surviving and escaping.

"We express our admiration for the courage of all the officers and men of your ship to fight bravely, and given the current state of your ship, there is no point in continuing to fight. This war was a tragedy for both British and German soldiers and civilians, and we had no intention of creating more senseless killings. There are still countless families of sailors in China who hope that you will return home for reunion, and I hope that the captain of your ship will give up pointless resistance in consideration of humanitarian considerations, and we promise that we will treat your soldiers humanely in accordance with international law. ”

At 3:20 a.m., Churchill, located in the naval headquarters building, was on the Guò radio radio, almost at the same time as the officers and men of the ship Ramiris, when he heard the "letter of surrender" from the German Navy on the front line to the Ramiris -- the German Navy at the scene was sending a "notice of surrender" to the Ramiris in the form of a searchlight moore code. Before this notice was issued, a copy of the "Notice of Persuasion to Surrender" had been sent over the radio to Germany, and then it was immediately "broadcast to Britain."

The whole of Britain heard the surrender notice.

In the British Navy headquarters building, Churchill, who had not eaten lunch, had an unusually pale face, not only him, but in fact, almost all the relevant personnel in the current combat command center did not eat lunch. The Royal Navy, the pride of the British Empire, was actually "live-streamed" to the British Isles by the Germans, which was almost an "intuitive" means to feel the whole process of the destruction of the Royal Navy for the first time.

From twelve o'clock, whether it is the entrance of 10 Downing Street or the front of the Navy headquarters building, a large number of people gradually gathered. The Royal Navy is stepping into the abyss step by step, and after hearing the news on the radio, where can the ordinary British people afford this kind of "welfare" of feeling "defeated" at the first time of the war, and spontaneously organize themselves to the door of the government early.

When the letter of surrender was broadcast on the radio, there was silence in the Navy Building, and the "onlookers" outside the Navy Building also collectively lost their voices, and the entire British Isles was also silent.

Almost everyone held their breath as the radio revealed the choice of Captain Bert of the Ramillis.

His choice will determine the future direction of this war.

"You must not surrender!"

In the war room, Churchill, who had been silent, suddenly jumped up, and then roared like a drowning man catching a straw, shouting at the people inside,

"Contact the Ramis at once, and tell Captain Sùbert that he can't surrender! If he did surrender, the British Empire would have lost the war once and for all. ”

Churchill knew very well that the feelings of the British people were now tied to the fate of the Ramillis, and if the captain of the Ramillis surrendered, the last vestiges of the British people's will to war would dissipate. For the British Empire, this meant complete disaster.

"This war, if we can't end it as a victor, then the empire on which the sun never sets will be completely ruined! Bert, he can't fall! ”

Someone replied, "We couldn't reach Captain Bert an hour ago!" Their radio room could have been broken by the Germans! (To be continued......)