Although only one shell hit, the movement was really not small, this large-caliber shell directly pierced the thick main turret of the King George V and triggered a violent explosion of the ammunition depot under the main turret, and the battleship King George V, which was seriously injured, completely lost the ability to counterattack, and was finally forced to sink itself in order to prevent the warship from being captured by the Germans.

However, the victorious Tirpitz was almost in crisis, and the British light warship, which saw that the defeat had been decided, did not pounce on the side of the Bismarck, but chose to "pinch the persimmon to pick the soft", intending to concentrate on Liliang to kill the Tirpitz, which was not lightly injured and lacked protection, but fortunately, at this time, the British light cruiser had all been sunk by two German battle cruisers, and there were only 5 destroyers left, and the 24 German planes watching the battle came to the aid in time, plus the sinking resistance of the Bismarck-class battleships was too good, The Tirpitz was wounded and wounded, and suffered 2 torpedoes, but it still floated steadily on the surface of the sea, which made the British desperate. In the end, all the remaining British warships were sunk, and the Luftwaffe Navy and Air Force also worked together to achieve an unprecedented victory!

In this almost decisive naval battle, none of the four warships dispatched by the German Navy sank, although all were injured to varying degrees, but except for the battleship Tirpitz, which needed to be overhauled, the other three could continue to fight, and although more than 60 Luftwaffe aircraft were shot down by the British, compared with the amazing results they achieved, such losses were completely acceptable; The British navy, on the other hand, suffered heavy losses again, sinking not only three battleships, six light cruisers, and 15 destroyers, but also the losses in the perimeter battles (Note 1). That's even more striking. What's more, for the first time, the fiasco put Britain in danger of falling.

Because at this time, the British Navy had no capital ships that could fight, and Germany still had 1 battleship and 2 battle cruisers in the Atlantic theater, which made Britain's naval supremacy in the North Atlantic precarious, and it was possible for German troops to land on British soil; In addition, the German Far East Fleet also has two aircraft carriers, and if China stops the negotiations and joins forces with the Germans, not only will the entire territory of India inevitably fall, but also Australia and New Zealand, important members of the British Commonwealth, will not be occupied by the Axis powers

Of course. The attitude of the United States has somewhat emboldened the British Government. But the United States is a business empire after all, and if Britain can't keep it on its own, it's hard to imagine that those financial oligarchs who are covered in copper stench will be willing to support the U.S. government to fight to the death with the Axis camp, which is not as powerful as it used to be. Therefore, although Churchill vomited blood on the spot because of the bad news of this naval battle, he still gritted his teeth and insisted on working. Because the United Kingdom has been plunged into the greatest crisis in its history. If the landing of German troops could not be prevented. That's really going to ruin the country!

Historically, the British government had a plan to withdraw the royal family and government to Canada to continue to resist once the homeland was difficult to defend, but the strength of this space-time axis camp was much stronger than in history, and Britain had lost no less than half of its colonies due to the rise of New China and the Arab Federation. If the Commonwealth falls again, the Commonwealth will quickly fall apart, and it will never be restored. Therefore, in any case, the homeland must be preserved, and the morale of the British military and civilians will determine the success or failure of the defense of the homeland, so the royal family and the government must not leave at this time.

Churchill realised this and immediately met with King George VI in the hope that he would issue a proclamation expressing his determination to live and die with the British Isles in order to boost the morale of the military and civilians throughout the country. The King agreed, and the Queen rejected Churchill's suggestion that the two princesses go to Canada just in case, and uttered a phrase that countless Britons swore to the death: "Children cannot leave without me, I cannot leave without the King, and the King cannot leave under any circumstances." ”

The firm attitude of the royal family and the state to live and die greatly boosted the morale of the British army and civilians, but the news still came one after another, first the Northern Italian government with the cooperation of the German army recovered the entire southern part of the Apennine Peninsula, although the remnants of the Allied army fled to Sicily to resist stubbornly, but because Gibraltar had been lost, even if they were inspired by the king's speech, they would not be able to hold out for a few days, and the situation of the Allied forces in Crete was not much better, and it was only a matter of time before they were destroyed.

For the British government, however, the biggest blow was the German attack on the geographically important Shetland Islands, which were soon captured with the support of three capital ships and thousands of sorties. Because Shetland is the gateway to the northeast of Britain and is very important to the security of the British Island, the British government mobilized all the warships and aircraft that could be sent to support it, but because the army, navy and air force were all at a disadvantage, after a hard battle, they were still defeated, not only lost Shetland Islands, but also permanently lost more than 30,000 people, more than 500 aircraft and more than 60 ships (including torpedo boats and other small ships), while the German army only lost more than 3,000 people and less than 100 aircraft, and the myth of invincibility was still not broken.

It is worth mentioning that during this period, the battleship Bismarck was attacked by a number of British submarines, and was hit by three 533mm torpedoes during the battle, and was forced to return home for overhaul. However, even so, Germany still had two battle cruisers and had the advantage in terms of capital ships, at least in the waters of the North Atlantic, the British Royal Navy, which had always been arrogant, had begun to turn to breaking diplomatic relations and sneak attacks as the main task of the German Navy in the past.

But at this time, even the British themselves probably did not expect that the loss of some regional sea control gave the British submarine force, which had no chance to perform, a greater use, and the sneak attack on the battleship Bismarck during the defense of the Shetland Islands (although it could not be sunk, but it could not go to sea for several months, this attack is still of great value. Just the beginning

Note 1: Mainly the battle between the two air forces, from the German capture of the Faroe Islands to the end of this naval battle, not counting the losses during the naval battle, the Luftwaffe also had 127 aircraft shot down by the British, while the British lost 712 aircraft for this. In addition, the total number of combat aircraft in the British Air Force at this time was less than 1,500, of which the number of fighters was only more than 1,000, but after the completion of the general mobilization, Britain could produce 2,000-3,000 new aircraft every month, but the speed of loss was too fast, so the number of aircraft in service has not been able to rise, so don't be surprised that the total number of British Air Force aircraft is only more than 1,000, but it can lose hundreds or even more aircraft per battle. And it is worth mentioning that due to the astonishing production capacity of aircraft and the astonishing rate of loss, the number of aircraft in service of the British Air Force in this time and space fluctuated greatly for a long time, with more than 5,000 aircraft at the maximum and less than 1,000 at the minimum (to be continued......