Ⅵ

After a brief discussion with the captain of the dive bomber formation, the captain of the "Swordfish" torpedo formation commanded the remaining few torpedo planes to regroup outside the Frankfurt's middle air defense circle, and then turned their heads and rushed towards the plane again. Frankfurt.

Twelve dive bombers also flew to 1,500 meters above the Frankfurt at the same time to make final preparations.

"For the king, for the glory of the Royal Navy!" Seeing that the torpedo plane formation was about to enter the range of the German ship's small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, the captain of the bomber formation knew it was time to attack.

At the command of the captain, 12 dive bombers formed a formation, and the last one dived with its tail biting.

The sailors on the Frankfurt had long noticed this group of "vultures" that had been circling for a long time. At the beginning of the British formation's attack, they turned their guns around and covered the British formation's attack route with fierce firepower.

Facing the concentrated fire of the anti-aircraft artillery on the German warships, the three British bombers at the forefront were smashed into pieces within a few seconds, and the pilots inside didn't even have a chance to parachute.

However, at the airspeed of the dive bomber as high as 500 kilometers per hour, the short distance of 1,000 meters only takes 7 seconds.

Seven seconds later, 7 of the 12 dive bombers reached the ideal bombing altitude of about 500 meters without incident, and dropped 7 1,000-pound aerial bombs that represented destruction.

Seven 1,000-pound high-explosive aerial bombs headed straight for the Frankfurt with sharp whistles.

As the fleet with the most aircraft carriers today, the High Seas Fleet naturally knows the attack methods of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, and how to deal with HNA's attacks.

The Frankfurt was no exception. It began to make irregular maneuvers as early as when the British bomber formation entered a dive. In the words of Commander Becker, "I don't even know where the Frankfurt will turn in the next second."

The British "Barracuda" torpedo bombers that dropped the aerial bombs were not designed to perform dive-bombing missions. It would be difficult for them to perform dive-bombing missions. As a result, four of the seven aerial bombs splashed water on the Frankfurt, only two achieved near misses, and one achieved a direct hit.

But the Frankfurt is a heavy cruiser after all, and the 1,000-pound aerial bombs dropped by the UK can threaten aircraft carriers and even battleships!

This aerial bomb directly hit the No. 2 gun turret that was firing on the Frankfurt. The huge explosion instantly engulfed the entire midship. All the glass on the bridge was smashed into pieces by the powerful shock wave in an instant, scattering damage in all directions. Many officers.

Because Becker had been standing by the porthole all the time, and he squatted down to hide behind the wall at the moment of the explosion, this allowed him to successfully avoid most of the glass shards, only his back was scratched by a dozen shards.

He shook his dazed head from the bombing, stood up shaking his body, and looked around at the chaotic bridge.

All the officers in the bridge were wounded, but apart from a few unlucky ones who were hit by fragments in critical parts such as the head, few were directly killed in battle.

"Check the damage to the hull." Becker tried his best to stabilize his body, and ordered the second officer whose face was covered in blood not far away.

"Yes!" The second officer saluted with trembling hands, wiped the blood off his face, and walked out of the bridge with a staggering body.

Not long after, a group of medical soldiers with red crosses on a white background ran in, bandaged the wounds of the wounded, and carried the dead out of the bridge.

Soon, the second officer returned to the bridge.

"Captain, the situation is a bit bad. The two near-misses tore open a 3-meter-long and 0.5-meter-wide opening on the port side and a 5-meter-long and 1.5-meter-wide hole. The tank is also at that location, and now a large amount of seawater is being poured into the No. 2 oil depot through the fuel tank."

"The damaged oil tank is easy to block, right? Just close the valve."

"Unfortunately, closing the valve doesn't work, because the latter opening is on the No. 2 oil depot." The second officer shrugged his shoulders, "Now the No. 2 oil depot is almost full."

"Huh..." Becker breathed out, trying to stabilize his mood so that he didn't want to punch the second officer so much, "Forget it, fill up the No. 2 oil depot as soon as it is full. The fuel is drained, now... let's treat it as if we were fully fueled and set sail. What about on deck? How much damage did the aerial bomb cause?"

The second officer glanced at the No. 2 turret after hearing the words. At the moment, a raging fire was burning there.

"Obviously, the No. 2 turret is useless... But thank God, the bomb the British used was not an AP or semi-AP round, but a high-explosive bomb, and our main magazine fire door also worked, so that A 1,000-pound aerial bomb failed to detonate the ammunition in the main ammunition depot, otherwise the Frankfurt would have been cut into two halves..." The second officer said, "But if it keeps burning like this, it will detonate the ammunition depot sooner or later..."

"Then fill the main ammunition depot with water," Becker said.

"But there are still soldiers below. The explosion damaged the other exits below, trapping a dozen soldiers in the ammunition depot to death. The damage control said that they would need at least half an hour to break through those doors..."

"Do you think we can wait for half an hour?" Becker pointed to the No. 2 turret, which was burning into the sky. "If the fire continues like this, the ammunition depot of the No. 2 turret will blow up the whole ship in half in less than ten minutes." !"

"Captain! Starboard torpedo!" Just as the two were arguing, an officer in charge of communicating with the post shouted.

The expressions of the two of them changed, and they hurried to the starboard bridge and looked towards the sea.

At this time, the six "Swordfish" also flew over the Frankfurt in arrogance, as if mocking them.

The "Swordfish" took advantage of the fact that the Frankfurt was busy with damage control and determining the damage, and successfully stuck to the extremely short distance of one kilometer, dropping 6 aviation torpedoes.

"Damn it! Full starboard rudder! Cut inside to avoid torpedoes!" Becker rushed into the bridge quickly and shouted to the helmsman.

The second officer also ran in tacitly, picked up the radio microphone in the ship and shouted: "Starboard torpedo! Everyone hold on to the fixed objects beside them, and prepare for the collision!"

What the UK threw was a MK8-style 533mm torpedo with a speed of 45.5 knots, and it took about 43 seconds to travel one kilometer.

Originally, for the Frankfurt, a torpedo at 45.5 knots was hardly a threat, because 43 seconds was enough for the Frankfurt to turn a corner, but because the Frankfurt just ate two near-missing bombs, the hull flooded a lot. This slows down its turn considerably.

"Boom! Boom!" With two loud noises and two water splashes tens of meters high, two torpedoes slammed into the starboard rear side of the Frankfurt. The chrysanthemum was torn to pieces!