Although it was known that Germany's artillery sighting radar was very good, the "Acasta" destroyer still cast a smoke screen cover for the "Glorious" aircraft carrier, because no matter how good the Haode artillery sighting radar effect is, after all, it is not as good as the Germans' world's No. 1 optical sighting device, and the hit rate of the shelling will drop a little after switching to radar guidance, although this may not allow the "Glorious" aircraft carrier to hold out until reinforcements arrive, but the probability is always a little greater than doing nothing

At this time, the engine of the battlecruiser "Scharnhorst" broke down again and could not maintain a high speed of 29 knots. Vice Admiral Machar decided to change formation and let the "Scharnhorst" stay behind to deal with the "Acasta", while he himself led the battlecruiser "Gneisenau" to continue the attack on the "Glorious" in order to sink it as soon as possible.

After the order was given, the bow of the "Gneisenau" suddenly set off a huge wave, overtaking the sister ship "Scharnhorst" from the starboard side at a speed of more than 30 knots, and pursued closely in the direction of the "Glorious" aircraft carrier's escape. Soon after, a 283-mm shell hit the bridge of the "Glorious", killing almost all the officers of the forward bridge, including Captain Ors, and had to be replaced by Lieutenant Commander Lowe, the first officer, and the tide of battle became more and more favorable to the Germans

At this time, the "Acasta" had already fired a number of torpedoes at the "Scharnhorst", but the British torpedoes were far inferior to the oxygen torpedoes in terms of speed and concealment.

To the great joy of the officers and men of the "Acasta". In the first two salvos of the battle cruiser "Scharnhorst", not even a single powerful 283mm shell hit its own ship, but even the 150mm secondary guns on the enemy ship were enough to cause considerable damage to the small and thin-armored destroyer, and the "Acasta" soon smoked and caught fire, reducing its speed to 15 knots and tilting sharply to the left. After the speed of the destroyer "Acasta" dropped, the hit rate of the German naval guns suddenly skyrocketed, and after being hit by a 283mm large-caliber shell, the destroyer "Acasta" could no longer support it and began to sink, but her 120-mm naval guns continued to resound from the beginning of the battle to the moment it was submerged in the water

After the sinking of the "Acasta". The entire crew of the "Scharnhorst" breathed a sigh of relief. This time they were finally able to deal with British aircraft carriers without interference. But then they found out. The battlecruiser "Gneisenau" was almost finished

Although the smoke screen cast by the destroyer "Acasta" had a certain effect, the shelling of the battlecruiser "Gneisenau" under the guidance of the gunsight radar still hit the target one after another, and one of the 283mm armor-piercing shells destroyed the engine room of the "Glorious". It spins uncontrollably in a counterclockwise direction over the sea. The speed has also dropped to almost zero. At this point, the possibility of the "Glorious" escaping is not even one in 10,000

A few minutes later, the "Gneisenau" fired a salvo at the "Glorious" from a distance of less than 9,000 meters, completely destroying the "Glorious", which was already dying. For fear of being attacked. The German warships hastily retreated without salvaging a single British sailor. And because of the signal problem, the other British warships did not know at this time that the "Glorious" had been killed. Although it was the polar day, the candle-like sun in the Arctic could not give much warmth to the British shipwreck, and most of the survivors who lacked food slowly ran out of strength until they froze to death. It was not until a Norwegian freighter retreating to Britain happened to pass by that it rescued 3 officers and 35 sailors of the "Glorious" and 1 sailor of the "Acasta", in addition to 2 British soldiers who had drifted away and were rescued by passing German planes, a total of 41 survivors

In this battle, the two battle cruisers "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" successfully sank all three British warships, including an aircraft carrier, and killed more than 1,500 enemies, but the price they paid was only more than 1,000 shells (including about 400 shells for 283mm guns), and more than 100 officers and men were killed and wounded

The morale of the British Royal Navy and even the whole of Britain has suffered a major blow again, so Churchill asked the Admiralty to launch a major offensive operation to revive the confidence of the domestic war of resistance to the end, but now the German large warships have retracted back into the country, and the British Navy who dare not send the Grand Fleet through the Skagerrak Strait north of Denmark has no way to take them, the Skagerrak Strait is too narrow, and it is very close to the German mainland, and it is useless for the British warships to send less, and the more they send will be the target of the Luftwaffe

Zuihou, the British Royal Navy, who had no choice but to use the Italians who were taking advantage of the fire as a punching bag, ordered the Mediterranean Fleet to launch a surprise attack on Taranto, the main base of the Italian Navy. In fact, this jihua has been there for a long time, and on July 15, 1940, the Italian battleship "Duirio" was modernized. On August 2, the new battleships "Lirioto" and "Victoria. The "Veneto" was incorporated into the fleet, they were the masterpieces of the best Italian designers and superior craftsmanship, with a standard displacement of 43,835 tons, armed with 9 381 mm cannons, and a speed of 30 knots, which was the fastest battleship at the time, and the liliang of the Italian Navy was greatly strengthened, which undoubtedly posed a great threat to the security of the British Mediterranean colonies and the Suez Canal, so long before the German invasion of Poland, the British Admiralty formulated a full set of operations with the Italian Navy as an imaginary enemy, However, in order to avoid unnecessarily building more strong enemies, it was not until Italy took advantage of the fire to invade France and actually exchanged fire with the British on the battlefield that this battle jihua was taken out again

Located on the heel of the Italian Boot-shaped Peninsula, Taranto is divided into the overseas port of Grande and the smaller inner port of Piccolò, and is the largest naval base in Italy. After careful reconnaissance, the British Admiralty learned that the battleships of the Italian Navy were anchored in Port Grande, while the cruisers and destroyers were anchored in Harbor Piclos. With 300 anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, and blocking balloons around the harbor, and a mine net in the harbor, the harbor looks very well defended at first glance, but the British Admiralty Jishu personnel still identified two fatal weaknesses (to be continued......