In fact, the chief and deputy chief of staff of the Navy knew only about this naval battle as described in the report of the naval command in Portsmouth Harbour, and they did not know more than anyone else, and they could not even tell the exact number of ships lost.

The destroyer that fled back to Portsmouth actually saw only the end of the battle, and did not see the whole course of the naval battle, as described by the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy.

When the two N-class destroyers completed the rescue of the survivors of the three minefields, it was discovered that the fleet commander had not given them follow-up orders. Tovey simply ordered the two destroyers to stay behind for the rescue, but did not give any explanation for what to do after the rescue was completed.

According to the previous naval practice, it seemed that they should continue to move forward to catch up with the main fleet, but the rescued sailors put forward another opinion, they claimed that many soldiers had been injured in the process of striking mines and escaping and needed to be treated as soon as possible, and some of the sailors and officers suggested to the destroyer captain whether it was possible to rush to the nearest port of Portsmouth, and after sending the wounded and surviving sailors ashore, the destroyer could return to the course to catch up with the large force.

The fact that the destroyer captains knew that these men were in fact selfish was not surprising at a time when the quality of the officers and men of the Navy was generally declining, for even they themselves were now feeling a little uneasy.

Although the sailors were very brave and fearless when they lay on the half-sunken hull, it was only after they were rescued from the destroyer, stepped on the solid steel deck, and felt truly safe that the sailors began to feel fear from the bottom of their hearts. They searched for their teammates in the crowd, and exchanged ideas about any unlucky comrades who had been killed, or saw Captain so-and-so sink into the sea and never rise again.

After the adrenaline subsided, they faced physical fatigue and psychological depression, and many people fell into extreme depression and fear, even the hot coffee delivered by the destroyer sailors could not stop them from shivering. Who knows what dangers await them in the back, the Germans clearly already knew about the existence of the fleet, and the two small destroyers that broke away from the formation did not even have the ability to defend themselves. These sailors really don't want to fall into the hands of death twice a day, and no one can guarantee that they will have that good fortune next time.

There was also a disagreement between the commanders of the two destroyers, with the captain of the destroyer Nestor believing that the sailors' advice was reasonable, and the German torpedo boats were still cruising and watching in the distance, waiting for an opportunity to come up and take a bite. The position of these two destroyers must have been reported to the German upper echelons, and the weak point of the N-class destroyers is the weak anti-aircraft firepower, and if the Germans send out air force air strikes, they can only wait for death. Anyway, the commander of the fleet did not give a follow-up order, and they could have taken refuge in the harbor of Portsmouth under the pretext of rescuing the wounded, and then contacted the fleet when they arrived at the port. Wait for the next command.

The captain of the Nizan was adamantly opposed to the proposal, acknowledging the great danger of proceeding, but withdrawing to Portsmouth was a cowardly escape, and he harshly accused him of being a cowardly coward who did not deserve to wear the uniform of the Royal Navy.

In the end, no one could convince the other, so a moderate plan was developed. The Nizan insisted on moving on, and the crew transferred the ship's wounded and the surviving officers and men who wanted to retreat to the Nestor, and the other side sent some of the surviving sailors who were willing to continue the fight to the Nizan. After the personnel handover, the two destroyers parted ways. The Nizan picked up speed to catch up with the departing main fleet, while Nestor turned its bow towards Portsmouth.

No one knows what happened to the Nestor, only that she never reached Portsmouth Harbour and that no floating remnants of her were found on the surrounding coast. The destroyer disappeared silently into the strait with more than 500 naval officers and sailors on board, which became a great mystery in the history of the war.

It wasn't until fifty years later that a declassified document revealed a report from a German torpedo boat unit in which a captain claimed that his detachment was tracking a British destroyer in the Channel when he discovered a terrifying explosion on the target. The warship sank to the bottom of the ocean in less than thirty seconds.

The Germans were obviously not sure where the explosion came from, there should have been no German submarine activity there, and the torpedo captain swore that it was not his own companions. The torpedo captain personally thinks that the other party may have been hit by a large drifting mine. Perhaps the tragedy was triggered by an accidental fire on board, and he warned German naval vessels to be vigilant when operating in the area, as there were no minefields on charts, and he speculated that some of the anchor mines might have broken free from their anchor chains and drifted along the tide as invisible killers.

The torpedo boats were on another secret mission, and it was only their own job to spy on the British warships, and because of the high level of secrecy of the mission, the report was sealed and not seen until fifty years later.

Compared to the mysterious Nestor, the encounter with the Nizan is even more legendary. The small destroyer pursued the main force at top speed all the way, and finally caught up with the end of that tragic naval battle.

As it approached the battlefield at high speed, the Nizan witnessed the final charge of the destroyer detachment, as well as the Queen Elizabeth leaving the group to break through, and Tovey's cruiser fleet was surrounded by German battleships and made a final resistance under intense artillery fire. The destroyer did not turn its bow and fled, but bravely rushed into the battlefield with full horsepower.

As she passed by the five light and heavy cruisers that had been hinged together, the captain of the Nizan was puzzled by what he saw, he couldn't figure out what had gone wrong for this, but reality didn't allow him time to find out, and the destroyer began to circle around the massive cruisers, emitting white smoke. The Nizan was ready to save the crew of these cruisers as much as possible under the cover of smoke and save them from becoming prisoners of the Germans.

The Germans had already discovered this small destroyer, and at the same time knew her intentions well, Raeder's order was to go with her, and now it was the turn of the German Navy to show their chivalry, anyway, those ships were all there, and no one wanted to leave this battlefield without the permission of the German Navy. By the time these recalcitrant cruisers were sent to the bottom of the sea, they would have time to slowly concoct the Brits, who liked to drive recklessly.

No one would have imagined that the British Home Fleet would suffer such a crushing defeat. More than 2,000 officers and men survived on the five cruisers, and this N-class fleet destroyer alone could not carry everyone away, and the Germans would not allow such a ridiculous thing to happen, and in the end the Nizan only carried some of the seriously wounded and all the senior officers, and dragged a long list of lifeboats as much as possible in the tail, and some sailors volunteered to stay on the ship, and they would be responsible for sinking the ship at the last moment, and never let their beloved warship fall into the hands of the enemy.

By the time the Nizan's rescue was over and she was ready to retreat, she found herself surrounded by the entire High Seas Fleet. The German Navy's flagship, the Admiral Schell, sent a flag urging him to surrender, saying that the British Royal Navy had proved its bravery with its actions. They gained the respect of the German Navy, and given that the British Royal Navy's home fleet no longer existed, the Germans advised the British Navy survivors to surrender immediately to the German Navy's High Seas Fleet, and that it was useless and foolish to continue to resist, that there was enough blood shed by both sides in this sea, and that there was no need to let the soldiers die in vain for the sake of empty pride, and the German Fleet Commander assured with personal honor that the surrendered British Royal Navy personnel would be treated well, and that the officers could keep their badges, swords, and personal belongings. The German Navy assured that no one would be persecuted for their bravery in battle.

Ignoring the Germans' good intentions, the Nizan circled the collapsing group of cruisers, then suddenly increased her horsepower and broke through to the western end of the channel.

In the direction of her breakthrough were two German light cruisers. The Germans launched an artillery bombardment on the obviously insane destroyer with great interest, and the dense shells enveloped the entire destroyer in an instant.

The Nizan ruthlessly cut the cable towing the lifeboat, and it was impossible to escape by towing these boats and people, and carrying them would only kill them by stray bullets. It would be better to leave them to the Germans, and if the Germans' persuasion to surrender was true, it might not be a bad thing for these sailors.

The destroyer released smoke again. Swaying from side to side and began to evade maneuver, in the process of evading, she even found an opportunity to fire a round of torpedoes at the German light cruiser, it was this round of torpedo attack that disrupted the interception of the German light cruiser, after receiving seven 150-mm shells in succession, and more than two dozen 37-mm shells, the destroyer miraculously broke through the encirclement network, dragging billowing black smoke, while rushing towards the west at a rapid speed of 36 knots.

The German destroyer formation hurriedly began to speed up, preparing to hunt it down, but was eventually summoned back by Raeder, and the German navy had already won the most glorious victory, and there was no need to rush to kill them. A destroyer, already seriously wounded, does not matter the development of the war, does not need to spend precious shells and fuel on her. Seeing that it was getting late, the situation in the strait was complicated, and the British, German and French sides threw a lot of messy things here, everything is still based on safety, don't capsize in the gutter at the last moment, leaving an unnecessary stain on the Navy's glittering report card.

With a shipload of disabled sailors and a full 300 tons of bilge water, the Nizan slowly sailed into the Portsmouth military harbour with a crooked body. The captain jumped directly from the side of the ship to the shore before the sailors had tied the cables, and he rushed into the command of the naval base and reported to the commander of the base the crushing defeat of the home fleet.

Since he was the only one to return, the base command could not distinguish the truth from the fake for a while, so it only wrote a short and superficial report and sent it to the Admiralty in London. That report is now in front of Churchill.

The above only uses the standard report style to indicate that the home fleet has failed, and the details will have to wait until the investigation to attach a detailed report. What is known is that all the ships of the fleet have been sunk or captured, the commander of the fleet, Admiral Tovey, was martyred, and only one destroyer in the entire fleet survived the encirclement.

Phillips put down the indicator stick in his hand, he stood next to the map and carefully observed Churchill's expression, this job is really not easy to do, the official title with a sub-word means that you do hard work, you go to the blame, send you to death, thumb Phillips is not a soft persimmon to be kneaded, but in front of the famous Churchill, he can only obediently accept his fate.

"At the Defence Committee meeting later, I will review my responsibility for this failure, this operation is my proposal, but the whole plan is drawn up by the Fleet Command, someone must take responsibility for it, the Royal Navy will immediately come up with an investigation report, I will see it on my desk tomorrow morning." Churchill glared at Pound with a cold face, and the latter quickly nodded yes, the admiral was on the verge of collapse, and from the moment he entered the door, he was constantly wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, and Churchill was disgusted by the ugliness of this general, and he got up angrily and walked towards the door.

"Remember, before eight o'clock tomorrow morning." Churchill commanded the two admirals at the door, his bodyguards opened the fire door for him, and he strode out of the command room.

"I'm going to make a call, Your Excellency Chief of Staff." Phillips walked over to Pound and whispered to his boss.

"Tom, what exactly should we do now, my mind is confused, the Home Fleet is finished, and the Royal Navy is finished." Pound said to his deputy chief of staff in despair.

"It's not over, sir, the Royal Navy isn't done yet. I think you need to rest now, leave the rest to me, you just stay here and wait for the Prime Minister's call, I'll go and set up the investigation now, we still have a lot of work to do, sir. Phillips helped Pound to the side of the couch and sat down, comforted the other man, and hurried out of the room.

Phillips didn't want to know how many people would be held accountable, censored and arrested, and how many people would eventually lose their positions and careers or even their lives, Phillips didn't want to know, he just knew that tonight was a rare opportunity for him to show the Prime Minister his unruly demeanor, and at the same time let the wartime cabinet see his strong organizational skills and flexible political skills.

Pound, the old guy is finished, and he is no longer fit for the position of Chief of Staff of the Navy in terms of spirit and ability, so he who has performed well in this incident will be the first choice for the next Chief of Staff of the Royal Navy.

Maybe after tonight, I'll get rid of the sub-word in my title forever, and get the corresponding wartime rank, Admiral Phillips, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it. (To be continued......)