Chapter 2255 The final battle     2

"The German bomber is gone," Thomas said in disbelief at the group of tiger sharks leaving in the sky. From the attack just now, he could clearly estimate that the other party had only used half of the ammunition at most, so why did they leave?

However, no matter what, Thomas no longer has the time and energy to consider this issue, because a huge fleet appeared in front of them, just on the way to return to the British fleet. Needless to ask, this must be the long-awaited Spe fleet, and less than 23 kilometers behind Thomas, there is also the German Third Battleship Squadron chasing less than 100 meters away. This time, Thomas is about to be attacked.

So, the last battle in the Norwegian naval battle kicked off. Let's take a look at the remaining forces of the Thomas fleet, the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, namely the USS Elizabeth, the USS Malaya, the USS Warrior, the Prince of Wales, the Furious class fast battleships, the USS Furious battleships, the Tiger battleships, and the first battleships Invincible. There are only 8 battleships in total. They have to face the 8 fast battleships of the Spe fleet and the 4 Bavarian-class battleships behind them. The British fleet is in a very bad situation. The maximum speed of the entire fleet cannot even be maintained at 22 knots, and the firepower loss has exceeded 40%. All warships have suffered varying degrees of damage, and the Spe fleet is almost full of health, and the German third battleship squadron behind is also in good condition. There is almost no chance of winning in this battle.

"General, what should we do?" asked a subordinate.

"Order the fleet to prepare to break through with two warships as one formation. If one of the warships is damaged and cannot maintain high speed, the other warship can be given up immediately." After hesitation, Thomas issued this controversial order in later generations and accused him of the people who said that because of this order, Thomas' fleet lost half of the remaining warships, and those who admired him said that because of this order, Thomas saved half of the warships.

So, before finally receiving the enemy, Thomas' fleet quickly dispersed into four squads, the Elizabeth and the Furious, because these two warships were in the best condition, the Malaya and the Tiger, because the Malaya was also in good condition, the Tiger battlecruiser was fast, and it seemed that it could run away. The Warrior and the War Warrior were a little worse, and the Invincible could only be in the group with the worst Prince of Wales.

"It seems that it's time for our last battle." Although Thomas' order was to break through the scattered breakout and everyone could go, in fact, some people always need to use their sacrifices to buy time for the fleet. Therefore, the fleet with the worst ship conditions should assume this responsibility, burn itself, and illuminate the way for retreat for its teammates. Although the British fleet has been destroyed, the British naval sense of responsibility in this era still made Captain Richard turn around and rush towards the German third battleship squadron with the Prince of Wales and the Invincible.

"The British are going to run away and they are breaking through the scattered end and are preparing to evacuate eastward." Earl Spee immediately judged the other party's idea after receiving the information from the seaplane, which made the Count feel a little tricky. Although the Thomas fleet cannot defeat itself now, if they want to leave, can two warships equivalent to Helgolan-class battleships chase two queens to death, it is obviously unrealistic. And if there are three ships in one team, then at most two teams will be captured. It has to be said that Thomas's actions caused great trouble to Earl Spee.

"The fleet is divided into three parts. I lead the United Power, Teghov and Prince Eugen to pursue a group, Lieutenant General Suxiong leads the Schánhorst, Gneisenau and Saint-Istwan to pursue another group, two Turkish battleships and the Independent aircraft carrier." Earl Spee thought for a while and said. The two Turkish battleships have the lowest comprehensive combat power, and the ships are the same ships, but the people are different. I guess the British should not be able to keep them, and Earl Spee and Suxiong each caught one group. The Earl thought about it and could only kill two more battleships at most. There is no way. The quota is not enough, it's annoying.

Besides, the British fleet, Elizabeth and Furious were in the best condition. They could even run at a speed of more than 235 knots now. The first flash was so fast that it was even before the Spe fleet reacted. Then there were Warriors and Prince of Wales. Unfortunately, they were first targeted by Earl Spee, while the Malaya and Tiger were targeted by Su Xiong. As for the Turks who did not grab the goods, they rationally chose to be with the Independence, in the name of protecting the fragile aircraft carrier. In fact, the war has reached this level, and Turkey's idea of ​​preserving the fleet is at its peak. On the contrary, the Americans are relatively active and want to see the final outcome of the British fleet at close range. Therefore, in addition to leaving the necessary destroyers, most of the remaining destroyers were allocated to two squadrons.

So the entire battlefield was directly divided into three small battlefields, and the first one to come to an end was naturally the Prince of Wales and the Invincible, commanded by Captain Richard, because they faced the strongest enemy.

"Lieutenant General, we can leave two battleships to deal with these two British warships, and then the other warships will pursue the British army." On the flagship of the Third Battleship Squadron, the Fleet Chief of Staff, suggested to Lieutenant General Schmidt.

"No need, we will stop working if we concentrate all the firepower of the fleet to kill them. This is our mission, don't do anything extravagant." Lieutenant General Schmidt said. Then, when the four Bavarian-class battleships aimed the remaining 24 artillery at the two poor warships, they had less than 15 minutes left to survive.

The first one to be destroyed was naturally the poor Invincible. It was undoubtedly a miracle that this battleship could survive until now. However, when he decided to seek death and exchange his life for his teammates to survive, God could not save it.

The battleship of the Coburg battleship finally got the first main ship in its life to kill a 15-inch shell shot from the Coburg fortun. Fortunately, the shell hit the Invincible ammunition depot before other colleagues. The shell accurately drilled into the rear of the Invincible hull after flying over 17 kilometers. The shell easily tore open the side armor belt of only 6 inches, and then the tilted 25-inch dome armor. Finally, it kicked the Invincible turret 3 turret ammunition depot with a kick.

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This chapter ends
Chapter completed!