Ⅴ

"The Frankfurt is over..." Colin stood on the bridge of the heavy cruiser Lorraine, looked at the sinking Frankfurt with its tail submerged in the water and the bow emerging from the water, shaking his head and sighing.

"There are a lot of sailors on the Frankfurt on the sea. Shall we stop the ship to rescue them?" A staff officer asked Colin while looking at the ants-like people with a binoculars.

"Nonsense." Colin turned his head and stopped looking at the victims of the Frankfurt and the people in the water, "Of course we won't save them! Where do you think we are and what are we doing? This is not a drill, and you think the British will watch us save people Why don't you take the opportunity to beat us up?"

"Okay...Okay." The staff officer couldn't bear to look at the half-submerged wreckage, and said in a low voice.

"Boom!" Just when the only bow of the Frankfurt that was still out of the water and was about to sink completely into the water at 90° perpendicular to the sea surface, a roar familiar to German officers and soldiers was uploaded from the Frankfurt, echoing for a long time. on the sea.

That was the sound of the salvo from the No. 1 turret of the Frankfurt! It is also the last roar of this heroic German heavy cruiser in this world!

No one knows how the German naval officers and soldiers in the No. 1 turret fired at a position 90° perpendicular to the sea surface, but their spirit of fighting to the last moment of their lives expressed to the world what is the spirit of the German navy.

Naturally, the last three shells fired by the Frankfurt were not accurate at all, but in other words, these three shells hit their targets extremely accurately.

British Royal Navy, the bridge of the battleship HMS George V.

Cunningham and a group of senior British naval officers stood straight by the porthole, silently holding up binoculars to watch the Frankfurt completely disappear on the sea.

After a long time, Cunningham put down the binoculars in his hand, took off his service cap and held it in his left hand, and solemnly saluted the standard British naval salute in the direction of the sinking Frankfurt.

Other officers followed suit and expressed their highest respect to the enemy.

"Aside from the positions of both of us, there is no doubt that the enemies facing us are a group of respectable opponents." Cunningham put down his right hand, put on his hat again, and sighed to the officer beside him "It's hard for me to imagine what made the High Seas Fleet re-emerge in just over 20 years, catching up with or even surpassing the High Seas Fleet at the peak of World War I—whether it is equipment or spirit, it is all-round . . . If we in England have this naval spirit because we have Nelson, what does Germany have?"

"Maybe it's because they have the cruiser 'Emden', maybe it's because they have the battleship 'Frederick', maybe it's because they have the cruiser 'Hindenburg'..." A senior officer said slowly , "Maybe it's because they have Von Ruth, or maybe it's because they have Leon Andres..."

"That's right..." Cunningham gave a wry smile. "Our opponent is getting stronger and stronger. I have a hunch that the sun is going to set, and the era of England is coming to an end..."

"But before the sun goes down, we will still fight for England!" All the officers said in unison.

"They have their insistence, and we also have ours..." Cunningham straightened his 57-year-old waist again, "Through the public frequency, send power to the remaining German warships opposite, and say that if they surrender and disarm , we can let them go!"

"Understood!" The communication officer saluted, and quickly ran to the electromechanical operator to send out the message.

Soon, the German ship called back.

"General, the commander on the other side called back." The communications officer ran back with the call back, "He said that if they were not members of the High Seas Fleet, they would definitely consider our proposal, but unfortunately, they are the German Navy."

"Yeah." Cunningham nodded. This result was within his expectations. "Then tell them again. We can send a destroyer to rescue the soldiers who fell into the water, but they can't open fire."

"Okay." The communications officer nodded, turned and left again.

Like last time, the German army responded quickly.

"General, they accepted our proposal and expressed their thanks to us."

"Let the destroyer 'Lure' leave the formation and go to rescue the German officers and soldiers who fell into the water. After completing the mission, return directly to Portsmouth." Cunningham ordered.

At the same time as a signalman led away, the Lorraine and Roon also escaped from the shadow of the Frankfurt sinking and began to fire on the King George V again.

The battle started again.

Two hours later, in the waters off northeast Belgium.

"Keep shooting! Work harder and sink this shitty battleship!" Navy Ernst Lindemann slapped the table in front of him viciously, pointing at the French Dunkirk, which was about to slip away 18,000 meters ahead. roared the battleship.

"Boom!" There was another salvo, and nine 406mm high-speed heavy shells roared out of the gun bore, trying to fly away to the Dunkirk, which was already seriously injured.

"Hit the target! Two nearly missed and two hit directly!" The officer in charge of observing the impact point quickly reported the results to Captain Lindemann and Battlefleet Commander Lütjens, "The Dunkirk is over, It's over!"

In the distance, the armor under the No. 2 turret of the battleship Dunkirk obviously swelled up, and then a violent explosion broke out, breaking into two pieces and quickly sinking into the sea.

The other two French battleships with varying degrees of damage saw that something was wrong, so they quickly turned around with a group of light and heavy cruisers and destroyers, intending to withdraw from the battlefield.

"Do you want to chase?" Lindemann asked Lütjens beside him.

"Don't chase! Turn around, we set off to return to Den Helder!" Lütjens said anxiously, "Send a report to General Raeder, tell him that we have sunk one, damaged two French battleships, and successfully escaped After being entangled by the French navy, we are rushing back to the Den Helder naval base!"

"clear!"

After a few minutes.

"General Lütjens, General Raeder called back, ordering us to turn around and head north immediately to join the aircraft carrier fleet under his command."

"What? What does the general mean?" Lütjens looked puzzled.

At the same time, the bridge of the USS Leon Andres aircraft carrier.

Raeder sat blankly in the fleet commander's lounge, holding a telegram in his hand. He had maintained this position for an hour.

It can be vaguely seen that the telegram is his communication telegram with the Den Helder Garrison Fleet.

"Lyon Andres: Ron, Lorraine, Frankfurt, this is German High Seas Fleet Commander Erich Johann Albert Raeder, please call back immediately after receiving the message!

Ron: Received by Ron.

Leon Andres: Report your situation!

Roon: The situation is very bad. The Frankfurt and Lorraine have been sunk, the ship has been severely damaged, all four main guns have been destroyed, and the bridge has been directly hit. From the first officer (temporary captain) down, All the bridge officers were killed in action. I am the chief engineer, and now I am in temporary command of the Ron.

Leon Andres: I order you to withdraw from the battle immediately! Do not make fearless sacrifices! The battle fleet has almost repelled the French navy, they will be back soon!

Ron: I am commanding the remaining officers and soldiers of the whole ship to fight back with two 128mm secondary guns and 40mm anti-aircraft guns... We have damaged the new British battleship... We can't go anymore... If the Empire still remembers us, please sink it in our battle A place to sink three Iron Crosses! Long live the Empire! "