PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket voted by the book friend "qxg", and ask for the recommendation vote T-T again

"Even if the Air Force can't go to war, it can't retreat now." , Colonel Jung gritted his teeth and spat secretly, and ordered the main guns to continue firing at the King George V, trying to separate the victory before the battleship Rodney entered the battle. At this time, the Tirpitz had already adjusted the fire control parameters, but none of the first salvos after that hit, and a large-caliber armor-piercing shell of the enemy ship pierced a thin armor part of the Tirpitz underwater, although it failed to hurt the vital point, but caused some of the Tirpitz's cabins to be flooded and the speed of the ship was reduced. Obviously, as the distance between the two ships continued to close, the threat of the battleship King George V's 356mm main guns to the Tirpitz also increased rapidly

"Damn! Be sure to sink it! Captain Jung gritted his teeth with hatred, and the rate of fire of the German guns gradually showed an advantage, and the salvo was round after round, and soon a large-caliber armor-piercing shell hit the bow of the King George V, and its speed slowed down at once

"Well done!" , Captain Jung waved his fist excitedly in the command tower, the bow was shot but seriously injured, even though the British's ability to drain and manage damage is unparalleled in the world, it should not sink, but a large amount of water will inevitably cause a drop in speed, and in the battleship bombardment, a sharp drop in the speed of one side will inevitably put it in an extremely dangerous situation.

But Jung had barely screamed excitedly when he felt a huge tremor under his feet. Rao is still quite athletic, he couldn't control his balance for a while and fell to the ground, and his ears were buzzing with a loud noise. Jung was shocked, regardless of the injuries on his body, he quickly turned over, and saw that several officers had fallen in the cabin, Jung knew that they were injured by the steel fragments splashed after the cannonball hit the bridge, and it was fortunate to say that if it weren't for a subordinate blocking his side, Jung was afraid that he would have fallen at this moment

After examination by military doctors, it was confirmed that only three seriously injured officers could not be treated. This can be said to be quite lucky. But Captain Jung's face was terrifyingly dark, because the bridge was the most important part of a warship, and even if the enemy's armor-piercing shells were not enough to penetrate the thick armor that protected the conning tower, it could still pose a great threat. In particular, there is no way to receive radar and optical sighting devices that are protected by armor inside the hull

"The radar was completely destroyed, the optical sighting device was badly damaged, and the command instrument could no longer be used. Difficult to repair during combat". Captain Jung's forehead was suddenly wrinkled, and although he pretended to be calm and ordered the backup device to be activated, his heart was extremely depressed. If the backup device is easy to use, it is not called a backup device, after replacing these backup devices, the ship's guns can still reach a fraction of the previous hit rate should be thankful, not to mention that it will take time to replace the backup device, before that you can only rely on the fire control system of each main turret for aiming, and their performance is even more unexpected

The commander of the British fleet received a report from the seaplanes that a previous shelling had hit the bridge of the enemy ship, and then found that the enemy ship had failed in three successive salvos, and immediately realized that the enemy's main fire control system had been destroyed, and was overjoyed. Considering the weak main gun power of the battleship King George V, it was not easy to sink the Tirpitz, so he simply pinned his hopes on the ten light warships, anyway, the battleship Tirpitz has now had a greatly reduced hit rate, these light warships can boldly get close to launch torpedoes, and if the ten ships fire a salvo after a certain distance, one round is thirty or forty torpedoes, and it can fire at least four rounds in a row almost uninterruptedly, and the Tirpitz will not escape anyway, Even if they are lucky enough to hit their own warships in the counterattack, they will only sink one or two at most, and it is impossible to turn the situation around, and if they escape, no matter how fast the battleships are, they will not be able to outrun the light cruisers and destroyers!

The British vice admiral, who thought that the victory was certain, continued to observe for two more rounds, further confirmed his judgment, and immediately ordered the flagship to turn around and pick up the battleship Rodney, which had been overtaken by three large German battleships, instead of continuing to pursue the battleship Tirpitz, after all, now that the British side had the upper hand, the vice admiral's desire for stability prevailed. As long as the battleship King George V and the Rodney successfully get close, "two battleships + a full 11 light warships" against "one battleship + two battlecruisers", the odds of victory are obviously very great, and then the British Royal Navy will have a good chance of reaping a long-lost victory

However, the vice admiral's decision was considered by later historians to be an important turning point in the naval battle, as the departure of the battleship King George V greatly weakened the regional air defense capabilities of the forward fleet (Note 2), especially the firepower of long-range anti-aircraft guns (Note 1). But this does not mean that he must have done something wrong, the delay in the appearance of German planes, anyone will think that the Germans did not clean up the airport in Tórshavn, and there is inevitably some carelessness in their hearts, but the Luftwaffe fleet did not come early or late, and it appeared just when the King George V was halfway there

Considering that the ship would return to the opposite direction of the German aircraft, and that continuing to approach the Rodney would be in the same direction, it was obvious that the relative speed of the two sides in the former case would be faster and therefore more dangerous, so the British vice admiral did not hesitate to decide not to change course, but ordered his subordinates not to care about the life of the warship's power system, and to increase the horsepower to the limit, so as to get as close as possible to the rearguard fleet, and to obtain their anti-aircraft fire protection as soon as possible.

Note 1: The battleship King George V was equipped with 16 133mm high-level dual-purpose guns, which had a long range, great power, and was even more effective with the addition of a proximity fuse. The British light cruisers had only 8 102mm anti-aircraft guns for long-range air defense, and the destroyers had only 2-4 destroyers each (the British also built destroyers with stronger air defense, but the number was still very limited at this time, and they were not sent in this battle.) Gaoping dual-purpose guns of caliber below 120mm, 4 light cruisers and 6 destroyers combined were not much stronger than the battleship King George V

Note 2: That is, the first half of the fleet where the battleship King George V was originally located, including 2 battleships [before the departure of King George V], 4 light cruisers and 6 destroyers; The rearguard fleet consisted of the battleship Rodney with 2 light cruisers and 9 destroyers (to be continued......