Chapter 1010: Death Struggle
It's late today, only one chapter, sorry.
…
The sound of artillery and machine guns was endless.
The Renown and Repulse were engaged in a fierce anti-aircraft battle.
However, it is called fighting but in fact it is just passively taking a beating.
Battlecruisers are high-speed ships with reduced protection and battleship firepower. Their purpose is to make up for the battleship's weakness of being too slow to avoid the situation of "not being able to catch up or hit".
Due to lack of attention, the ship had only three "pom-pom" guns and five Vickers machine guns for air defense.
(The picture above shows the "pom-pom" gun used for air defense on warships. It was not until around 1930 that it was upgraded to an eight-barreled gun, but it was still unsatisfactory.)
This amount of anti-aircraft firepower could hardly threaten the French dive bombers.
The "Jenny B" bombers dived from the sky one after another. If the pilots had any concerns, they just had to not dive too hard to avoid crashing into the sea or hitting warships.
Bombs were released one after another, drawing graceful diagonal lines towards the target warship.
"Full left rudder!" shouted Captain Fernando, captain of the "Reputation".
Colonel Fernando is an experienced commander who is 56 years old and close to retirement. He has experienced countless thrilling battles and escaped death several times.
These experiences have honed his perseverance and indomitable spirit, enabling him to remain calm and analyze the current situation even in the face of major changes:
It is impossible for air defense to shoot down all enemy planes, and the "boom-boom cannons" and machine guns do not even have enough angle to aim at the target.
Naval guns will be useless as we can’t even see the enemy’s aircraft carrier.
Then the only thing to do is to use the battlecruiser's speed to perform "snake-like" maneuvers to avoid enemy bombing!
It turned out he was right.
The battlecruiser's sudden turn caused most of the bombs to deviate from their targets. Only two small bombs hit the deck, causing negligible damage. The remaining bombs set off towering columns of water on both sides of the warship, causing the warship to shake violently like a leaf sailing in the stormy waves.
But the "Repulse" two nautical miles away was not so lucky. More than a dozen bombs hit the hull and exploded.
With the flames and black smoke rising into the sky, it was difficult for Colonel Fernando to tell whether it was caused by bombs or coming out of the chimney.
But one more glance in the direction of the Repulse made him realize it was doomed: its speed was slowly decreasing, like a wounded and exhausted beast.
This means that it cannot evade and can only become the target of enemy bombers where it is, which is no different from being sunk.
Sure enough, the next second a bomber broke through the clouds and dived over.
It released its bomb almost directly above the Repulse, dropping the 250-kilogram bomb from its belly.
The bomb whistled and hit the top of the main turret of the "Repulse" directly and penetrated it.
The turret exploded from the inside, and the shells and the propellant in the shell hoist exploded instantly, triggering a series of disasters. The bow of the ship was surrounded by a ball of dark red flames with a loud bang.
Captain Fernando sighed softly and turned his attention back to the Renown.
Now that I am struggling to protect myself, it is certainly not the time to care about the fate of others.
It should be my turn next!
But Colonel Fernando still made his last desperate struggle. He believed that he still had a chance, and that it was not just his life that was at stake, but also the fate of all the men on the ship and even the British Royal Navy.
If the most advanced battlecruiser was sunk by the enemy without even seeing its target and without firing a single shot, would it mean that the entire Royal Navy had lost its deterrent power?
Colonel Fernando simply walked out of the command cabin. He held the handrails tightly with both hands and looked up at the sky, always paying attention to the enemy planes diving down from the sky, silently calculating the time for them to release their bombs.
Suddenly, he turned his head and shouted to the command cabin: "Full right rudder!"
In an instant, the subordinates became busy:
"Full starboard!"
"Full starboard!"
…
The ship turned at such a speed that it almost threw Colonel Fernando into the sea.
Another batch of bombs passed overhead, and they exploded with a whistling sound at the position where the warship had just been, sending waves onto the deck.
There was a cheer in the command room, and they were glad that they had escaped danger again.
Colonel Fernando smiled slightly. If they continued like this, they might even be able to encounter the enemy's aircraft carrier.
However, even as he was considering this possibility, his eyes caught sight of two planes approaching from the flank.
They flew low and level over the sea, maintaining a steady speed, with their noses pointed 90 degrees at the side of the warship like the edge of a sword.
Colonel Fernando immediately realized what it was.
"Torpedo planes!" Captain Fernando shouted. "Stop them and shoot them down!"
But it was too late.
Everyone's attention was focused on the bomber overhead, and the "bang bang" gun was also damaged, so even if they wanted to stop it, they had no firepower.
Fernando watched helplessly as the two "torpedo planes" approached, closer and closer.
The two torpedoes plunged into the sea like released swordfish, and then two white lines appeared and moved towards the side.
…
The sea area more than thirty kilometers away.
While Colonel Fernando was struggling against fate, even holding on to a glimmer of hope to turn defeat into victory and find the enemy aircraft carrier, General Winter had already withdrawn from the battlefield with his fleet.
"Our reinforcements will be useless," General Winter said. "If we don't want to sink to the bottom of the sea, we must reunite with the main force in time."
Captain Ethan nodded in agreement.
More warships mean denser anti-aircraft firepower, and their machine guns can also cover each other.
At the same time, the squadron could also surround the French aircraft carriers and prevent them from escaping, which made the enemy aircraft carriers dare not get too close.
"I hope they won't notice us." Ethan trembled in fear.
Otherwise, the battleship fleet with a speed of only 20 knots would immediately become the target of those bombers.
But General Winter didn't think so. He looked up into the sky and saw two seaplanes circling overhead, following the fleet wherever it went.
"We can only hope they've run out of bombs, Ethan."
Colonel Ethan looked up at the sky and turned back to shout orders: "Speed up, full speed!"
Colonel Ethan doesn't even play the role anymore.
The maximum speed of the "Canada" was 22.75 knots, while the two battleships following it had a speed of only 18 knots.
Another meaning of its order to advance at full speed is to abandon its friendly troops and escape alone.
It is clear that this is a disgrace and a stain on the noble Royal Navy.
The reason why Captain Ethan became the captain of a ship was his courage and strength, as well as the slogan he shouted to his subordinates: "We will fight to the last moment."
However.
The reason this was said in the past was because the British Royal Navy was the most powerful navy in the world, and the most likely victims on the battlefield were the enemies.
Now.
They couldn't even see the enemy, all they could see were bombs falling from the sky.
And the ending is already determined, either being blown to death or sinking to the bottom of the sea.
What’s the point of talking about courage at this time?
(End of this chapter)
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