Fred got up from the floor and asked loudly without bothering to pick up his hat, "Report the situation!" What about the damage? ”

"Looks like a near-miss." The first mate, leaning against the side wall of the bridge, said, "The explosion right next to our ship's side may have caused some damage to the underwater structure." ”

Fred let out a sigh of relief.

"Fortunately, everyone hold on a little longer, it is impossible for the enemy planes to carry too many of these big bombs, as long as we hold out, no matter how much it costs, we will win!" Fred said as he took his big cap from the orderly's hand, elegantly flicked the dust and put it back on his head, "The Royal Navy will win the glorious ...... again."

A flash of light from outside the porthole interrupted Fred's words.

Then came the terrible sound of an explosion, which made the thick porthole of the bridge tremble.

Fred stepped forward to the porthole and held up his binoculars to look in the direction the sound was coming from.

He saw a huge ball of fire slowly rising into the sky.

He realized almost immediately that it was the result of a massive explosion at a ship's ammunition depot, and no matter how reluctant he was to accept it, it could not change the fact that one of the Royal Navy's capital ships had been destroyed.

"Find out which ship was sunk." Fred lowered his binoculars and commanded in a deep voice.

As soon as his order was issued, the communications corpsman reported: "Upon receipt of the radio, the cruiser Norfolk reports that the Fleet's flagship, HMS Hood, is no longer able to perform its command duties, and asks HMS George V to take command in accordance with the command sequence." ”

Fred took a deep breath, his expression was very sad, and he said to his subordinates in a deep voice: "Raise the flagship flag and write down the time when the ship will take command in the logbook." ”

At this time, a hurried voice came from the loudspeaker: "Bridge, this is the G section, our cabin is flooding, repeat, our cabin is flooding." ”

"Don't panic, how big is the gap?" Fred tried to keep his voice as calm as he could.

"The near-miss just opened a hole in several of our waterproof partitions, the innermost opening is about fifteen feet long, and we are rushing to the ferry, but we have to cut off some of the power supply!"

"Then cut it off, you can decide for yourself this kind of thing, Chief."

"But after cutting off the electricity, the anti-aircraft batteries above us will be completely incapacitated, and can only be aimed manually, are you sure you can afford to lose these anti-aircraft firepower?"

Fred just opened his mouth, but hesitated.

The Germans continued to dive downward, and it looked like their wave offensive would continue for some time.

At this time, it was obvious that the anti-aircraft fire of the King George V had weakened a lot—although it was not hit by a large bomb, the King George V was hit by several smaller bombs in succession, and Fred estimated that it might be four hundred to five hundred pounds, and many of the anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the deck of these bombs suffered heavy losses.

If there is another loss of anti-aircraft fire, God knows if something will go wrong.

"Captain, please close the chamber into the water, as far as possible to prevent the water from spreading to the other chambers, we need that electricity."

"Okay, Captain, but that would cause us to lose power to at least one of our boilers."

"It doesn't matter, this ship was designed with the possibility of fighting when it loses some of its power, so let's just do it."

As soon as Fred finished speaking, the deck beneath his feet trembled again, but this time not as much as the near-miss he had just made.

But immediately another ominous feeling came to Fred's mind - as a veteran Royal Navy officer, Fred could easily detect changes in the speed of the ship by his physical sense.

"Why are we slowing down?" Fred asked the Navigator in a loud voice, "Hurry up and get back to full speed!" ”

The captain immediately checked the four clocks on the bridge and found that they were all in full gear. He immediately picked up the microphone and called the engine room: "Chief Engineer, why are we slowing down?" ”

"I don't know, the turbine is still running at full power, and our tachometer here is normal, and if we are indeed slowing down, it means that there is something wrong with our propellers."

At this time, even the less experienced helmsmen and messengers sensed that the ship was slowing down, and they all looked up and looked at Captain Fred with a look of trepidation.

Every Royal Navy soldier knows how terrible it is to lose speed in battle, which basically means that a battleship can become a living target.

However, the Lookout, who had less experience than the helmsman and the signal man, was still doing his duty, so he reported aloud: "Seeing the light signal of the War Weary and asking why we were slowing down. ”

That's when Fred finally came to his senses.

Presumably, the near-miss bomb that just fell just now landed near the stern, and the shock wave of the bomb explosion must have destroyed the propeller.

"Inform the War Weary that our propellers are damaged." Fred's face turned blue when he said this, "Please follow the command sequence and take over the duties of the fleet's flagship." ”

At this time, everyone on the bridge was dead.

A chilling silence hung over the bridge.

After a brief pause, Fred picked up the microphone and turned on the radio system that was broadcasting to the entire ship.

"Fellow soldiers, I'm Captain Fred."

He paused, and a series of expressions flashed across his face, both remorse and chagrin, but in the end they all gave way to decisiveness.

"I'm Captain Fred," he repeated before continuing, "I'm sorry to tell you that our propellers have been damaged and now we're losing speed. Because, I decided, we will stay and break off for the whole fleet. Glorious Royal Navy soldiers, the time has come for us to do our duty. All those who do not have the courage to fight with the battleship until the last moment can choose to leave with dignity, and those warriors who choose to fight with me until the last moment will be favored by God. ”

Fred paused and continued: "We will die generously, so that the Germans, who rely on their ingenuity, can see the backbone of the Royal Navy!" Long live the Queen of England! ”

Fred heard the overwhelming sound of hooray coming from outside the bridge.

He raised his arms again and shouted: "Long live the British Empire!" The Royal Navy will never be defeated! ”

Amid the deafening shouts, the massive battleship slowly stopped moving forward and turned into a dead fish floating on the surface of the sea.

The war-weariness sounded its whistle, followed by other ships that were still in the midst of fierce fighting. Fred knew that the officers and soldiers on board who had no specific combat mission must have all saluted the King George V.

He put down the microphone, straightened his military hat, and saluted through the porthole to the war-weary, which had hoisted its flagship flag and was heading ahead ahead of King George V. That's when he saw the Warweariness sending a light signal.

Without waiting for the lookout to interpret it, Fred read the signal himself: "May God be with you." ”

No sooner had the light signal died down than another loud bang shook the bridge of HMS George V.

This time, without waiting for Fred to ask, his adjutant reported: "It's the Counterattack, and it seems that the ammunition depot exploded as well." And the Royal Oak didn't look good, I could see it tilting and slowing down. ”

Fred sighed heavily, he suddenly realized that he was wrong, the Americans failed only because the planes were not good enough, and when the Germans used better aircraft, the days of battleships were gone. Maybe the situation would be much better when there was a god, but in a naval battle, the naval god was supposed to be used only against the enemy's naval god, and the dispatch of the naval god to deal with the enemy's air force already indicated that the battlefleet was about to retire from the stage of history.

"Confirm another wave of enemy aircraft." The report of the lookout post on the mast resounded through the bridge through a loudspeaker, "It's a large aircraft, and it should be the same kind of reconnaissance plane that has been hovering over our heads for the past few days." ”

Fred let out a long sigh, he should have thought that a plane that looked so big, had to be so tall and so fast, wouldn't be a mere reconnaissance plane.

Although the hit rate of high-altitude horizontal bombardment was worrying, and the hit rate of ships under sail was almost negligible, at this time the British King George V was spread out on the surface of the sea like a dead fish.

And the Germans would not necessarily bomb with a safe level.

"Enemy planes begin to dive!" The lookout's tone was very nervous, "They're rushing down at us. ”

"Anti-aircraft fire, stop them!" Fred said this, but in fact he had lost hope of holding off the German attack, he turned to his adjutant and said, "I'm going to the main gun firing command post at the top of the armored fort, I'm going to watch the Germans drop bombs on us, and if death is inevitable, I'm going to watch the enemy's bullets come at me." ”

"Do as you wish." The adjutant said to Fred respectfully.

In this way, Fred left the bridge and moved with the adjutant towards the command post of the main gun. As they moved, they heard a series of explosions.

But HMS George V made it to Fred's arrival at the command post.

As soon as he entered the command post, he heard the chorus of soldiers coming from the loudspeaker.

It was the Royal Navy's war song, "Rule_Britannia".

Fred was overwhelmed with emotion for a moment and joined the chorus:

When Britain was placed by the Creator on the blue sea at the beginning of the world, we swore to the gods of this land that we would protect this continent forever with the gods!

The Germans' bombs hit the front main turret, and flames poured out of the holes in the roof of the turret.

- Go ahead, Britannia! The queen will rule over the waves!

The bombs of the Germans exploded at the bottom of the main mast, the mast made a sharp noise and fell to the side, and the lookouts standing on the mast howled and fell to the sea.

- Forward! Britons will never be enslaved!

The fire of the anti-aircraft guns became weaker and weaker, and the German fighters who had dropped the bombs even turned around and strafed the deck with their cannons.

But the British sailors were still singing:

- Forward! Britannia! The queen will rule over the waves! Advance! Britons will never be enslaved!

Eventually, HMS George V was transformed into a flaming torch in a series of explosions.

(The fourth shift was delivered, half an hour late.) It is estimated that there is no fifth watch to strive for, after all, the fifth watch is really too difficult for me, and it can only be used as a direction to challenge myself. Get some sleep, get up and continue to challenge the five watches. ）