The British really didn't think that the Icelanders would really dare to open fire, and they were really stunned for a while, but fortunately, the British didn't really have never seen the world, and the harvest was all old birds who had participated in actual combat, so they quickly reacted.

"Fire, **** mother!" Mitchell scolded.

However, the first mate immediately grabbed him: "Captain, our task is to lure the enemy into taking the bait, and we can't expose it!" ”

Mitchell's face was cloudy, and he was silent for a moment before he said, "Turn the rudder and retreat!" ”

The harvest began to turn the rudder very aggrievedly, why do you say aggrieved? Don't forget that it is a Q ship, and the Q ship is armed for anti-submarine purposes, so to speak, it is equivalent to a small frigate. Even to tell the truth, the hidden firepower of the Harvest is probably stronger than that of the 2135, and if you really want to see the real chapter, the 2135 may not be the opponent of the Harvest.

And the problem is that in order to lure the enemy, the harvest can only tie its own hands, and can only be beaten and not fight back, which makes Captain Mitchell, who is full of anger, naturally smoke, at that time he may have only one thought in his heart - Grandson Turtle, let you be proud for a while, wait out of the territorial sea line, and see how Lao Tzu cleans you up!

Mitchell gritted his teeth and prepared to retaliate, and in his opinion, it was very simple to want revenge, and the tattered and rotten No. 2135 was just scum in his eyes, and he could abuse it casually.

So does the script really follow Mitchell's estimate? Unfortunately, the British have always held themselves very high, and then they have always been taught to behave by the harsh reality.

Although No. 2135 is broken, it does not mean that No. 2135's combat effectiveness is scum. For the very bloody Icelanders, they know that their country is not as powerful as the British and other big hooligans, and it is impossible to obtain the advanced equipment of the British Royal Navy, but there is one thing they can do, that is, to try to make the most of the weapons they have, and the Icelandic gunners are practicing their gunnery hard, and they are really quite strong in this regard.

Mitchell quickly understood this. The Icelandic artillery fire was quite accurate, six Soviet-made 57mm naval guns rolled towards the harvest like a rain of bullets, don't look at the 57 guns are not powerful, but the rate of fire is quite amazing, especially at close range, it is like a machine gun fire.

For a time, the Harvest was shot one after another, and even the bridge was pierced through several holes. The second officer and the chief navigator were directly hit by shrapnel and carried down in blood. Mitchell, who was splattered in blood, was already on the verge of exploding, and several times he couldn't help but give the order to fight back.

"Accelerate, full speed ahead!" Mitchell couldn't help it, he felt that if he continued to be beaten so passively, he might not be able to get out of Iceland's territorial waters, and he couldn't continue to load fishing boats like this, he had to hurry!

The Harvest began to accelerate, from about 10 knots to 15 knots, and according to that trend, it seems that there is still room for upward improvement. This time, No. 2135 is a little unbearable, after all, she is old and her legs and feet are not good, and she is really not good at speed.

"Captain, the British are going to run, what should I do?"

Faced with the question of the deputy captain, the captain of No. 2135 was also a little helpless, the gunnery can be practiced and improved, but there is really no way to do this hardware facility. Let the old arms and legs of No. 2135 play a race with the enemy, it is really difficult for a strong man.

"Speed up as much as you can, and let the lads keep beating hard!"

This is also the only thing that No. 2135 can do, the captain of the ship is also a little disappointed, just now he was holding back a force to kill the British, who would have thought that the British could not fight, but they were good at running, Nima, what is a broken fishing boat doing with such a good engine? You're not rowing.

Yes, at this time, the captain of the 2135 did not realize that there was a problem with the identity of the Harvest, and still thought that his opponent was just a bold British fishing boat. So at that time, he was somewhat less vigilant, and did not inform the nearby Type 36 frigate of the situation as soon as possible, but chose to continue the pursuit.

So one ran away, and the other chased as hard as he could, gradually getting closer and closer to the territorial sea line, anyway, Mitchell had some intention of looking through the autumn water, he had already ordered in advance to make the whole ship sailors ready for battle, and as soon as they left the Icelandic territorial waters, they would immediately let the Icelandic barbarians behind them taste the might. Anyway, at this time, Mitchell can't wait to start counting down in his heart, and he is looking forward to this moment!

But God seemed to be trying to get along with the British, and just as they were getting closer and closer to the territorial waters, a 57-mm grenade accurately hit the middle of the hull of the Harvest, drilled through the broken hull, passed through two thin planks, and accurately hit the boiler of the Harvest.

With a bang, the boiler exploded at once, killing four or five engineers on the spot, not to mention that it had lost half of its power, and its speed dropped instantly, from 16 knots to only 10 knots.

The British were immediately dumbfounded, who would have thought that they would immediately fall to the finish line, how could they fall at this time? Is this Nima playing with us?

The British were stunned, and the Icelanders cheered, don't look at the old No. 2135, but the speed of 10 knots can still catch up, with the captain's order, the engineer on the No. 2135 took out all the strength to eat milk, which was a desperate addition of coal to the hearth, which directly caused the speed of No. 2135 to soar all the way. Once again, the distance between the two sides is gradually shortening!

Mitchell was really upset, this time he thought that the task would turn out to be like this, and he actually let the incompetent Icelanders break a boiler, which the Nima Germans have never done!

Mitchell's anger had already broken through the margin, and he glanced at the territorial sea line that was close at hand, and finally couldn't help it: "Start fighting, give the Icelandic crumbs a little color!" ”

The first mate tried to stop it, but Mitchell didn't listen to it at all, in his opinion, he was already on the edge of the territorial sea line anyway, and this distance was a little bit of a distance, as long as he could get down to No. 2135, who would have evidence that he had entered Iceland's territorial waters.

Soon, the Harvest was busy, and the British sailors, who were already gearing up, began to remove the camouflage from the cannons, or take out the machine guns from the cabins, and it was clear that this was going to be played for real!

The change in the Harvest immediately caught the attention of the 2135, and it was then that the Icelandic captain realized that his opponent was not a fishing boat, but an armed gunboat!

"Contact the Poseidon and tell her that we have encountered a British gunboat and that a battle has broken out!"

Although the 2135 is asking for help, but it has not retreated, as the descendant of the proud Vikings, the captain of the 2135 believes that he must maintain the dignity of Iceland, what about the world's first Royal Navy, Lao Tzu just doesn't bird you, even if Lao Tzu **** sinks, he has to drag you on his back.

The artillery battle finally began, with one 127-mm naval gun in the bow and stern of the Harvest, and four 76-mm guns in each of the gun emplacements in the middle of the hull. In terms of firepower, it is naturally much stronger than the No. 2135, which has only 6 57 guns.

At least that's what Mitchell thought, and he happily yelled at his men, "Let those bastards taste the power of the Iron Fist of Great Britain, and give me a hard beating!" ”

The 127-mm naval guns fired, and two shells swayed and landed on the sea near No. 2135, creating two large water columns, which you can't say were really spectacular. And the 76 guns in the middle of the hull of the Harvest were not far behind, and quickly sprayed bullets and rain on No. 2135. For a time, it was an incomparably spectacular salvo of guns.

Is number 2135 scared? How is that possible, for Icelanders, there is no word for fear in the dictionary, but they are becoming more and more excited and excited. The 6 57 guns fired frantically, the shells fell towards the Harvest like rain, and the Icelandic crew on the deck kept transporting the shells, maintaining the continuous fire of the 57 guns, even if they were pushed by the waves created by the British shells, they would get up with a grunt, like Xiaoqiang and not knock down.

On the contrary, the British were a little unbearable, as mentioned earlier, although the 57 gun was less powerful, it had a high rate of fire, and it was almost sweeping the hull of the Harvest like a machine gun. Don't look at the size of the Harvest is quite big, but to tell the truth, the ability to resist attacks is also like that, after all, it is a Q ship that has left home halfway, and it is not a complete warship. Especially as the sailors on the deck continued to fall under the rain of 57 guns, the British gradually felt a little overwhelmed.

"Keep firing and try to inflict heavy damage on the enemy as quickly as possible!" Mitchell commanded through gritted teeth.

He also saw that something was wrong, and he had miscalculated the Icelanders' fighting determination and gunnery skills, and the enemy's fast artillery had caused him considerable trouble. On the contrary, the 127 mm gun equipped with the Harvest is not so powerful, first of all, the fire density is too poor, a salvo can only shoot two shells, and a maximum of 10 shots per minute, this kind of fire density makes it difficult for the 127 gun to hit the 2135. In fact, even if it hits, it often can't do much damage, because the 127mm grenade easily penetrates the hull of No. 2135 and falls directly into the sea from the other side, and the shell that does not explode can have any lethality.

After fighting for so long, in fact, the 76 gun with a much smaller caliber can actually cause effective damage to No. 2135, the 76 gun has a rate of fire, and the fuse of the ammunition is relatively sensitive, so it is very suitable for attacking such thin-shelled targets. The problem was that there were too few 76 guns on the Harvest, there were only four guns in total, and there were only two guns on each side, which also faced the problem of poor fire continuity and vitality density.

"Distance, distance!"

Mitchell had to give new instructions, it was too bad for him to continue to maintain this kind of close-quarters grappling, and the 2135's 57 guns at close range had an astonishingly high hit rate, which was really unbearable for him. He was ready to distance himself and take advantage of the caliber and power of his artillery, and also avoid being swept away by the enemy.

It's just a great idea, but it's not easy to implement! The reason is very simple, the Harvest no longer has a speed advantage at this time, and it is quite difficult for it to distance itself from the 2135 with a lame leg, especially under the premise that the Icelanders are quite excited, it is almost impossible for the Harvest to dodge.

Mitchell wanted to run, but No. 2135 did chase after him, constantly greeting the Harvest with cannonballs while chasing, and in just ten minutes, the superstructure of the Harvest had been beaten to pieces, the flames were spreading everywhere, and the smoke was even more obscure. All in all, at this time, the harvest can no longer see the previous bravado and high spirits, like a wolf with a broken leg, with its tail between its legs is even more pitiful than a dog.

As for Mitchell's mood at this time, it was naturally terrible, he couldn't figure out how he got to this field, obviously he had all the advantages in his hands, obviously he should have beaten Iceland!

It's just that at this time it was the British who were hanged, and it can even be said that the British were helpless, and the barrel of the 127-mm naval gun that was still towering before had hung down, and even the barrel of a gun had been burned and curled up in the raging flames.

According to the recollections of the crew of Project 2135: "The enemy ship burned brightly, like a red-hot soldering iron, red and shiny. The smoke was even higher into the sky, even if it was more than ten kilometers away. British sailors with flames on their bodies constantly jumping into the sea, even if they are two or three kilometers away, we can faintly hear their sharp cries for help! ”

Mitchell didn't care about any combat at this time, because the bridge was also surrounded by flames, and civilian ships were very bad at this point, and the fire protection design was completely inferior to that of warships, which were easy to catch fire, and once they caught fire, it was difficult to rescue. At this time, the Harvest had completely lost power, the cabin was pitch black, the wooden deck and wood decorations were burning, part of the deck had been completely burned and twisted, and even some of the steel skeletons were left altogether, and the whole ship was a blazing furnace!

Mitchell kept ordering his boys to put out the fire, but the main pump of the Harvest, which had lost power, could not work at all, and could only rely on a small number of hand-cranked pumps to pump water to extinguish the fire. It was completely unstoppable to the spread of the flames, and after only twenty minutes, Mitchell knew that this time it was a bad luck and had to abandon the ship.

"Abandon ship, abandon ship immediately!"

Mitchell reluctantly gave the order, but instead of leaving immediately, he led a handful of volunteers to try to continue the fight against the flames, because he saw a glimmer of hope, a few nautical miles away, the Royal Navy destroyer was approaching fast, and he hoped to subdue the flames with the help of friendly forces.

Even the confident captain waved his fist at No. 2135 not far away: "Dog mongrel, it's your turn to be unlucky, go die!" ”

Naturally, the 2135 also saw the rapidly approaching British destroyer, an old American flat-deck destroyer, typical of the First World War, that is, the junk that Churchill had exchanged for the British Empire's overseas territories from the Americans.

Of course, it may be that compared to the main destroyers of Britain and the United States, the flat deck is indeed a little rubbish, but for Iceland, the flat deck destroyer is also a destroyer, and it is certainly not something that the likes of No. 2135 can fight against.

According to the general rhythm, No. 2135 seems to have only one way to go, and that is the retreat of Malaya, and even this road is not so easy to walk, after all, the speed of the flat-deck destroyer is not slow, even if it only uses the cruising speed, it can ring the No. 2135 in minutes.

No. 2135 naturally knew this, so this old-fashioned sea cruiser made an astonishing decision, that is, not to retreat, but to fight with the enemy!

So does number 2135 have a chance of winning? I'm afraid not, because the flat-deck destroyer is just too powerful for her. Strong enough that the British could tease No. 2135 in an almost flirtatious way.

"Attention the gunboats on the other side, this is the British Royal Navy, and we order you to stop all useless resistance at once and surrender immediately! Repeat, surrender now! ”

To this, the Icelanders replied with a series of cannonballs, and sneered at the British arrogantly: "A bunch of fools who don't know the height of the sky, according to the predetermined plan, completely deal with them!" ”

The flat deck began to fire fiercely, and at one point No. 2135 was covered in a rain of bullets, and was hit by seven or eight bullets in just five minutes, but none of the Icelanders chose to back down, they stuck to their posts, and told the British with practical actions that the dignity of Iceland cannot be desecrated!

After another ten minutes, No. 2135 was almost beaten into a sieve, two of the three main guns were destroyed, and dozens of people were killed and wounded, but still not a single Icelander chose to flee or surrender, and without the guns, they took out machine guns, rifles and submachine guns from the cabin and fired at the British destroyers.

The British were amazed, and couldn't figure out why the Icelanders were so tenacious, and why they were stupidly persisting in a one-sided and hopeless battle, don't you fools know that this is in vain?

Is it in vain? The answer is naturally no, the insistence of No. 2135 is definitely not meaningless, because soon the Poseidon frigate arrived at the scene, when almost half of the hull of No. 2135 was soaked in water, but Poseidon could see that the only remaining crew on the ship was still shooting at the British destroyer with rifles, telling the British with practical actions - Iceland's fighting spirit is unyielding!

The arrival of the Poseidon finally allowed the 2135 to breathe, and when the Poseidon joined the battle, the British also realized that something was wrong, and the plan of capturing the Icelandic coast guard ships and then beating them up according to the original plan could not be implemented, because the Icelanders would not give in at all, how to capture them?

"Tell the Harvest to retreat immediately!"

The British destroyer began to turn the rudder, sparing the 2135, which was already dying, and began to cover the retreat of the Harvest. However, the Icelanders did not accept it when they saw it, but bravely pounced on it, and told the British with practical actions that they wanted to run? No way!

The rumbling of the cannon even seemed to boil the sea, and the British destroyers were very distressed to find that the Icelanders were too difficult, and it had no way to retreat with the Harvest that had been heavily damaged, and in desperation they played rogue tactics: "Your ship, please identify yourself, we are the British Royal Navy, we are ordered to cruise here, if your ship continues to provoke, we can only think that you are declaring war on Britain." Repeat, please end the act immediately, or you will bear all the responsibility! ”

To this, the Icelanders replied: "We are the Icelandic Navy, and your intrusion into our territorial waters and damage to our coast guard vessels is the most serious provocation." I order you to stop the ship immediately for inspection, or you will be responsible for all the consequences!" ”

Isn't it just a mouth cannon! Who wouldn't. Anyway, Icelanders have only one thought in their hearts: they have fought all the battles, and they can't be good anyway, so they might as well make more money.

The artillery battle continued, and the Icelanders seemed to have become more ferocious, almost pushing the British to the point of breathing. At one time, the British also wanted to go crazy, but when the fighters and bombers of the Soviet Red Army also appeared above them, the British knew that they could not hesitate any longer, and they had to hurry up, otherwise they would really die in the belly of the fish!

The British destroyers left the moribund Harvest and began to retreat at full speed, and soon the Harvest was disarmed by the Poseidon, and fifty crew members, including Captain Mitchell, were arrested on charges of trespass and imprisoned in Icelandic prisons.

"These idiots, you can't do such a little thing!"

When Learvin learned the news, he scolded him. According to her plan, the Royal Navy should have captured Iceland, right, why is it the other way around now, the Royal Navy didn't take advantage of it at all, but instead trapped everyone, it's too embarrassing!

It was clear that things were off track, but Learvine knew the worst was yet to come! Churchill also thought so, and soon the British Foreign Office sent a note to the Soviet ambassador (Britain did not recognize Iceland's independence, and the two countries have no diplomatic relations), strongly condemning the Soviet Union's connivance with Iceland's murderous behavior, and demanding that Iceland must immediately release the people, apologize, and compensate for all losses.

Almost at the same time, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR also sent a note to the British ambassador, strongly condemning Britain's blatant invasion of Iceland and demanding that Britain must give a reasonable explanation, otherwise the Soviet Union and Iceland will retain the right to react further.

In an instant, the press in Europe was boiling, and it seemed to them that this month was simply too happy Ariki? First of all, the United States and the Soviet Union fought in the air, and this gust of wind has just passed, and the British and the Soviet Union are fighting at sea again, should it be so hot?

Journalists with a keen sense of smell immediately realized that this was not just an accident, but a profoundly representative event, as if the Allies were going to fall out first when the anti-fascist war was about to be won?

Immediately, sensational headlines appeared on the front pages of the major European newspapers, and for a time the anti-fascist coalition seemed to show signs of rupture, while the peoples of the countries were worried...... (To be continued.) )