PS: Thank you for the generous reward of the book friend "Xia (⊙o⊙) Death" again, in addition, the ship gun hit rate is high in the description of the naval battle above, and the power is weak (fortunately, one in and one out has no impact on the results), after the book friend corrected, it will be more reasonable and true from this chapter, and I would like to express my gratitude ^_^

At 17:15, the "Zealous" really sent a coded telegram to the German warship, but the Germans naturally could not answer, and the British actually thought that the signal was not good, and sent it several times in a row. It was not until 17:20 that the three British warships confirmed that the three warships were friend or foe, but at this time the aircraft carrier "Glorious" had already entered the maximum range of the opponent's guns, and until now, her plane still did not take off a single one, and the two "Swordfish" that were raised to the flight deck were still hanging with depth charges

Contrary to the lax British, the German fleet discovered these three warships through the ship's radar early on, and according to the signals displayed on the radar screen, the tonnage of the other side was obviously inferior to the three large ships of their own, so even if it was not clear for a while whether the target was a civilian ship or a warship, the commander of the German fleet, Vice Admiral Marchar, did not hesitate to issue a "Ready for battle!" But for the sake of prudence, he left the comparatively faster heavy cruiser Admiral Hippel on the perimeter to keep on guard.

By 17:06, the course of the German ship formation had been completely adjusted, the speed had been increased to 24 knots, and the whole fleet had quickly completed its combat readiness and further narrowed the distance between itself and the target. But at this time, Vice Admiral Machar, who received the telegram from the seaplane, had a bitter face. "Damn, weishenme is an aircraft carrier!"

Although there are still people who doubt that the carrier-based aircraft with a limited number of aircraft carriers can blow up and sink battleships with rough skin and thick flesh, it is another matter if the armor thickness is relatively insufficient such as the battle cruiser, and although the Germans are old-fashioned, they have never lacked imagination in tactics, and it is naturally impossible to imagine the tactics of "flying kites" of aircraft carriers, if it is close to the mainland or the coast of the occupied zone, Vice Admiral Machar can still ask the air force for help, but the fleet is currently the closest to their own land airfield. But there is no hope at all. What's more, this was a completely unexpected encounter, and even if the planes had enough endurance, by the time they flew here, the battle would have been over long ago

But now it's too late to retreat. With the terrifying combat radius of the aircraft carrier's carrier-based aircraft and the maximum speed of the aircraft carrier, it is not inferior to the maximum speed of the battle cruiser. There is no escape. Rather than being killed while running away, it is better to give it a go, even if it is also defeated. It also looks a little better on the face. Therefore, Vice Admiral Machar quickly made up his mind and ordered the fleet to rush towards the enemy ships at full speed, seeing that the distance between the two sides was rapidly narrowing, Vice Admiral Machar was stunned for a while, and then quickly showed a look of ecstasy, and said to himself, "What's the matter?" Why don't these Brits retreat? Forget it, whatever the reason, as long as it can bring the distance closer to the range of the ship's guns, the aircraft carrier has nothing to fear. God bless Germany! God bless the Third Reich! ”

Finally realizing that the catastrophe was coming, "Glory" immediately turned to speed up and wanted to distance himself, but the officers and men of the British Royal Navy on board soon found that this was simply impossible. The speed of the "Glorious" aircraft carrier was not inferior to that of the three German warships (since the actual speed of the British warships was generally a little lower than the design value, while the German warships were the opposite, the actual maximum speed of both sides was actually about the same, although the design value was higher for the "Glorious" carrier). But now the German warships have increased their speed, and the "Glorious" aircraft carrier has only begun to accelerate, so it is obvious that the speed is a cut slower than the German warships, and the distance between the two sides is getting closer and closer

While the "Glorious" was slowly evading, the battlecruiser "Scharnhorst" finally pulled the distance between the two ships within the effective range of the main guns, and at this time the ballistic solver in the command room was already buzzing to get the start of the shot. In order to protect the aircraft carrier "Glorious", the destroyer "Zealous", with a standard displacement of only 1,350 tons, fearlessly rushed towards the "Scharnhorst", which had a displacement of more than 20 times its own.

Seeing this, Lieutenant Commander Lowich, the gunner of the "Scharnhorst", decisively ordered to shoot at the aircraft carrier with the main guns, and the secondary guns against the "Zealous", which was getting closer and closer. The turrets on the 2 German battlecruisers slowly turned to the port side, the projectile pusher smoothly pushed the projectile and the cartridge into the bore, closed the bolt, the gun hit the specified elevation angle, locked, and the fire engine safety was lifted!

The battlecruiser "Gneisenau" adopted the strategy of "killing chickens with knives" and fired a salvo directly at the "Zealous", and as a result, it immediately got off to a good start, and one shell hit the No. 1 boiler room of the "Zealous", and the "Zealous" hurriedly hid in its own smoke screen with the left rudder, but the "Gneisenor" battlecruiser immediately switched to using gun-aiming radar to guide the shelling, and continued to launch a fierce artillery attack on the "Zealous", and the D-type projectile with a short-delay fuse received miraculous results again. The great power of the 283mm caliber was also fully displayed, and the battlecruiser "Gneisenau" was almost completely deformed by the explosion of the "Zeal" after only one main gun shell, and finally was blown to pieces directly due to a torpedo explosion two minutes later

And by this time, the two front main turrets of the "Scharnhorst" had already fired the first salvo at the aircraft carrier "Glorious" at a distance of 26,000 meters. Fifty seconds later, Commander Lovikh observed the close round, pounded the wall in hatred, and shouted, "Damn it! Close to the bullet, add 600 to the ruler, fast! ”

The order was quickly conveyed to the turret, and the gunners hastily adjusted the gun elevation angles. At 17:34, the "Scharnhorst" fired a second salvo, but again got a long shot. By this time, the two "Swordfish" bombers on the "Glorious" had already changed torpedoes and were ready to take off. Both sides are aware that they must move quickly, and life and death are on the line.

The two test firings, one far and one close, were enough to draw a more accurate correction coefficient as a reference, and the battlecruiser "Scharnhorst" quickly fired a third salvo, and this time with good luck, one armor-piercing shell of 283 mm caliber hit the middle of the flight deck of the "Glorious" at a distance of 24,175 meters. The shells easily penetrated the horizontal armor and exploded inside the hull, creating a large hole in the center of the flight deck, which prevented the "Glorious" from taking off the plane, and at the same time caused a fire in the front hangar, and scattered shrapnel penetrated the air intakes of 2 boilers

Now the "Glorious" has completely lost the ability to counterattack, and only pinning hopes on the protection of the destroyer "Acasta" can get out of danger. However, the guns of the two German battlecruisers became more and more accurate, and the "Glorious" was shot one after another, and the whole ship caught fire and gradually tilted due to water ingress in many places, and the speed of the ship began to drop significantly for the same reason (to be continued......