By the time George was fished out of the icy waters, he was too cold to speak. He knew he was lucky, because he found a hardwood plank after jumping into the sea. George, a sailor who was only a few meters away from him, saw that he was no longer moving and sinking to the bottom of the sea, and there was no way to reach out to save him.

And when he took a sip of hot water and came back to his senses, he was the first to get up from the deck, stick to the railing on the side of the ship, and look out at the sea in the distance. The behemoth, which had never seen the end in sight, was gone, and the battleship the Malaya, where he had lived for many years, was gone.

"What about the Malaya, what about the Malaya?" said George, pointing to the sea, to the frightened sailors at his feet, and he roared loudly, drawing the sailors of the destroyer.

"Sir!" glancing at his rank, the sailor saluted before speaking, "Please exercise some restraint!" You've been swimming in the icy river for forty minutes, and it's best to take a break. ”

"Don't lie to me, what about the Malaya!" said George, looking back, with a look of despair. The sailors behind him were stunned for a moment, and then saw the deep despair and sadness in George's eyes.

Suddenly, George remembered something, and looked at the sailor: "Where's Captain Brown? Take me to him! Have you found the captain of the Malaya? Catch him out of the sea!"

"Sir, Sir, calm down! Half an hour ago, Captain Brown sent a telegram to the entire fleet, deciding to ...... with the battleship So we couldn't get him out. The sailor sighed and said, "But the vice-captain we have found it, and we are resting in the back compartment." ”

"Oh my God!" said George, looking back again, stunned at the sea of corpses, grease, and pieces of wood. Then he saw an even more terrifying image.

Far out on the sea, a huge British battleship was billowing with smoke, the fire on it was still visible even in such a daytime, and the battleship was slowly sinking, and George could even vaguely see someone jumping from the battleship.

In the end, the Luftwaffe shot down all the British planes that took off heroically, and 10 Gladiators and 7 Swordfish bombers were destroyed in the sky by the German naval aviation.

Only four of the 31 British Air Force pilots were rescued, as pilots of aircraft hit by Luftwaffe artillery rarely had the opportunity to parachute. But they also achieved admirable results: 2 Stuka dive bombers and 1 FW-190 fighter of the German Navy were shot down, and five German pilots were killed.

But it was not the British pilots who deserved the highest honor today, because they were ultimately the losers, and German naval aviation rewrote the history of naval warfare on this day.

An hour earlier, one of the fleet's light cruisers, the Penelope, had sunk, and the destroyers of the British fleet had been forced to rush to the rescue, and only half an hour later, the battleship Malaya, which had been shot at about the same time as the Penelope, sank to the bottom of the sea, turning the entire battlefield into a disaster.

But that wasn't the end of it, as the Germans took advantage of the chaos of the British fleet to clear the sky of the few remaining British planes in one fell swoop, and then swooped down on their main target, the aircraft carrier Eagle.

Soon the Eagle aircraft carrier was hit by a torpedo, but at this time it seemed that the luck of the British came, and the German carrier-based planes lost a lot of bombs and torpedoes because of the initial tension and confusion, and now these planes continue to attack without bombs and torpedoes.

In desperation, the German carrier-based aircraft began to return, but when they disappeared into the sky, the second wave of the German naval aviation attack echelon rushed down the clouds. The German plane, which was well stocked with ammunition, dropped three bombs in one go, hit the aircraft carrier Eagle, and also sent a destroyer to the bottom of the sea.

Almost all of the British fleet was wiped out, and the remaining cruiser turned around and fled with two newer destroyers, leaving three older battleships to rescue the drowning. All the sailors on the destroyer were very nervous, and they gathered around the anti-aircraft gun positions, staring at the distant sky with fear on their faces.

The pilots of the German naval aviation sank the British Royal Navy battleship Malaya, an aircraft carrier Eagle, a cruiser Penelope and a destroyer on this day, and such a feat was enough to bring them endless honors.

George looked at the slowly sinking warship in the distance, and his hand holding on to the railing became tighter and tighter. He had been playing poker with Frank and the others just a few hours before, and a few hours before he had believed that the Royal Navy was the invincible supremacy of the seas, as everyone else had here. But now, he's just a water dog, just a cold, down-and-out soldier, just a poor sailor who has lost his ship.

......

"The fleet is heading north at full speed! There are now at least 2,000 British sailors who are about to freeze to death! We're going to get them up!" Lutjens was so happy today that he even had his precious wine in the captain's room poured out a sip for each of the bridge officers—and the remaining half of the bottle was sent to the bridge where the cheers could be heard throughout the warship.

"Full speed ahead!Prepare to receive the returning carrier-based aircraft!They are our heroes today!No matter what kind of wine!Drunk them!" the first mate said loudly with a laugh.

Probably too excited, Lütjans habitually picked up his binoculars, looked at the sea, and realized that it was useless to do so, so he secretly put down what he was holding, and then looked left and right, and gave another order of his kind: "Telegraph room! Send a telegram to the Führer of Stone Fort! The telegram reads as follows: The 2nd Detachment of the High Seas Fleet inflicted heavy damage on the British fleet off the coast of Holland, sinking a battleship, an aircraft carrier, and a cruiser...... Commander Lütjans. ”

When he finished the order, there was another cheer on the bridge, and the officers of the German Navy were so happy today, what generations had been waiting for day and night, what the predecessors of the German High Seas Fleet had not done, they did today: they had almost completely annihilated a British fleet at a cost of almost zero.

"General! The radar shows that our fleet has entered our alert airspace, and the brothers of the air defense fighters have already caught up. The radar soldier reported loudly. His words caused another round of cheers. It seems that the sullen breath in the heart of depression over the years has been spit out, and everyone's mood has never been so good.

"Look! our hero is back!" shouted a sailor on the mast watchtower.

The first FW-190 fighter landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier, the ground crew rushed up to help him open the cockpit canopy, dragged people out of the plane, the soldiers who had been prepared for a long time hurriedly pushed the fighter aside, and the second plane rushed to the runway of the aircraft carrier in the air.

At first, every time a plane landed, it provoked a burst of cheers from the ground staff, but soon the cheers were gone. The ground crew just silently took the pilots out of the planes and pushed them aside.

Because most of these fighters have bullet holes in their fuselages, and even some of them have holes in the cockpit canopy. The pilots were exhausted and gasping for breath, and had to rely on ground support to get out of their cockpits.

When the first Stuka landed on deck, everyone was stunned, this cockpit dive bomber with thick steel plates can be described as full of holes, with a row of bullet holes from machine guns in the wings and two small holes in the horizontal rudder of the tail.

What was even more terrifying was the navigator's cockpit of the plane, the entire cockpit hatch was covered with red bloodstains, the plexiglass of the hatch had been shattered, and the machine gun fixed to the rear seat had long been missing.

The pilot opened the canopy of the cockpit, and the ground crew scrambled to pull him out of the cabin, only to find that his parachute had been broken by a single piece, and even there were abrasions on his shoulder. This pilot was the first hero to hit the Malaya.

"My navigator has been hit! God! Call the doctor! Get the doctor here! He needs an ambulance! Hurry!" the pilot did not shout the line he expected, he shouted in panic, knocking the ground crew who was about to open champagne for him.

"Congratulations on hitting the British's battleship first!" an officer approached and held the somewhat panicked pilot, "And your navigator is very heroic, he has helped you complete the historic attack with his life! ”

The pilot looked at the officer in a daze, and finally settled down slightly: "Sir! I hit that battleship!

"Yes!" said the officer, who stood upright and saluted, to the pilots who were standing on the deck and resting against the walls of the building: "Long live the Führer!

"Long live the Führer!" several pilots climbed up from the deck and saluted in a sparse manner. Their clothes were a little messy, and their smiles were a little stiff, but there was something different in their eyes. It had not been in the eyes of the officers and men of the German Navy for a long time: maybe ten years, maybe twenty years, maybe fifty years. They even forgot what they had lost.

Now, they have regained what they once lost – courage.