"Very good, continue to extend the shooting, let the radar pay attention to observe the surface of the sea." Admiral Forbes, commander of the home fleet of the Royal Navy, commanded Captain Mills from the armored bridge of the battleship Nelson.

Then the commander picked up the coffee sent by the serviceman and slowly walked towards the porthole beside the bridge. Looking at the fleet in the distance who was charging towards Dunkerque, Admiral Forbes was full of doubts.

Regarding the plan made by the chiefs of staff of the Admiralty, Forbes will have reservations from the beginning. This huge plan is full of assumptions and imagination. For a naval veteran who has been through a battle, it is foolish to execute a plan that has been boldly decided without rigorous analysis and long-term preparation.

Naval warfare is full of changes and various accidents. Any small oversight may lead to the destruction of a battleship or even the entire fleet. At this point, the naval staff must not know, but they still passed the plan with all their strength. This is What makes General Forbes most unimaginable.

Although General Forbes was dissatisfied with the plan of this operation, for the old navy, the Royal Navy’s belief is loyalty. No matter what you think, the command is the command. As a naval officer, it should be unconditionally obeyed. , So he still took the responsibility of the commander of the entire operation.

Putting elite giant ships of the Royal Navy's local fleet into such a narrow channel is inherently adventurous. I don't know what the guys in the Admiralty think. The current bombardment channel was swept out of the minefield, and traversed the entire Dover Strait. It intersected the Dunkel carved supply channel that was swept a while ago, forming a cross.

But this channel is too narrow, only about two kilometers, and the length of these giant ships is more than two hundred meters. The fleet must also remain on the center line of the channel. If they are attacked by German submarines here, these The ship has no room to turn around to avoid maneuvers. And the navy chiefs explained to themselves that under the cover of a large number of destroyers, the fleet would not be threatened by German submarines. I hope they are right, but the horror of the German submarine is not conceivable for those who do in the office. Admiral Forbes is still a little worried about the threat of the submarine.

For the part of letting his warships bombard the German army positions, General Forbes has not yet found out what is wrong. The admiral is full of confidence that his warship can accomplish this task. According to the Admiralty Intelligence, the most powerful artillery of the German artillery is the Army’s 210mm heavy howitzer. The intelligence says that the maximum range of such artillery is about 18 kilometers, so the Admiralty staff will shell the route Set 20 kilometers off the coast, those German artillery could not threaten their warships. And the longest range of the sighting* of his warship artillery can reach 25,000 kilometers, and it is powerful. It can be said that the German artillery and their own guns are not at the same level. It is very simple to suppress them.

According to the plan, his warship stopped moving after entering the artillery position within the artillery route, anchored the ship to fix the position, and then used a stable offshore floating turret to accurately and violently suppress the German position. Regarding this point, the Admiral did not have any opinions. This is the most standard procedure for onshore bombardment by the British Navy. The opponent is not a coastal fortress, and he is bombarded outside the opponent's range. There is no danger in doing so.

Now that your destroyer has begun anti-submarine patrols nearby, as long as no submarine has entered the defensive circle, then there is nothing to threaten your warship.

Forbes did not pay any attention to the attack of the German aircraft. So far, no battleship has been sunk by the other aircraft. What's more, enough air defense artillery is installed on his battleship, and the Royal Air Force has also arranged a wing fighter to **** his fleet. Under such strict defense, the German aircraft may not even have the opportunity to fly over his head. . Even if there is a German pilot who is not afraid of death rushing through the air defense network, Forbes does not believe that the small bombs mounted on the German aircraft can cause any damage to these warships with heavy armor of more than 300 mm.

The general is now annoyed that he had not obtained any accurate information on the position of the German artillery position until his departure. He now finally feels that his captains are right, the army's intelligence department is controlled by a group of waste. After so many days, they have not been able to obtain information on any valuable targets of the German position. The expeditionary forces were bombarded by the enemy for three days, and they didn't even know where the artillery shells came from. This is an incredible thing for the navy.

What the army commanders are doing these days? The general felt that if the encircled army was really so stupid, then even if they were rescued, it would not be of great use to defend the empire. In the end, defending the sacred British Empire depends on the brave and invincible Royal Navy, and Admiral Forbes has always believed in this.

At present, his own combat fleet does not have the coordinates of the enemy forces, no detailed and accurate information, or even an English map of the area where the enemy positions are located. Now he has only a French military map printed by the French on his hands. And some Germans seem to understand that they are at a disadvantage now. They have endured their three volleys and have not responded with their cannons, revealing to themselves the position of their artillery. Now that the German artillery positions cannot be found, the elite warships of the British Royal Navy’s local fleet can only use the most stupid way to crush the German positions with an inch of artillery shells, only to blow up the German artillery positions.

"boom......"

The huge roar of the naval gun sounded very dull across the thick armor of the bridge. The great power of the naval gun salvo caused the huge hull of the battleship to tremble with it. Forbes was very satisfied with the powerful artillery. This is the pride of the British Empire. As long as the British Empire still has these cannons, no enemy can defeat her.

Forbes used the high-power telescope on the bridge to observe the German position on the opposite side. Twenty kilometers is not a small number. Even the high-power telescope can only see a little bit of the outline of the German position. Now the volley of artillery shells just now Without falling to the position opposite, the general waited patiently. Finally, a few seconds later, he saw what he wanted to see in the telescope. Countless fireballs rose from the German position. Various pieces of debris and earth and stone were blown up in the sky, and then the whole position was dusted. He was covered with smoke, and the admiral heard a dull explosion from a distance.

"Yes, just fight like this. If they don't want to fight back, then simply let us tear them apart." Forbes said happily to Captain Mills: "It seems their artillery I dare not fire, the threats to those boats have been reduced by half, and today’s actions should have been smooth so far.”

"Yes, General." Mills replied on the side.

Forbes turned the telescope in the direction of Dunkel, and he began to observe the charges of the boats. The only thing left to worry him in the plan made by the Admiralty is that although the threat of the German artillery has been temporarily eliminated, the threat of the German Air Force is still there. If the fierce German Air Force is now targeting the group Using practical actions to explain to people what it means to be a dull small vessel to intercept, those boats will be swallowed up by the Luftwaffe within half an hour.

If the boat is destroyed, then the whole plan loses its meaning, and by that time it will not help to even blast the entire German position. If the Luftwaffe was actually dispatched, its own guns would not help those boats. At that time, they could only rely on the Royal Air Force aircraft.

The Royal Air Force also invested a lot of money this time. For this operation, they put in all available aircraft and divided them into several batches, preparing to cover their battleships and those 24 hours a day. Retreat the ship.

Now this batch is the first batch. Forbes thought and pointed the high-powered telescope in the air, but his sight was blocked by the bulletproof baffle on the porthole. Forbes put down the high-powered telescope, opened the side door of the bridge and walked to the observation platform beside the bridge. Using the large observation telescope mounted on the platform, he began to look at the group of fighters hovering over the boat.

The other officers on the bridge also followed him to the platform outside the bridge, and they also held their respective telescopes and looked into the air at Dunkel. In addition to watching the scenery with the general, they can only be silly in the bridge and watch the charts dazed. This is not naval warfare. The entire fleet was only used as a floating turret in this operation, and the bombardment was the job of gunnery officers. These nautical and commanding officers had nothing to do after taking the fleet to the bombardment position. .

"Luftwaffe aircraft, they are at high altitude!" an officer shouted.

Forbes also saw a large crowd of locust-like black dots flying high in the direction of Dunkel's engraving rushing towards the British fighters hovering above the fleet. And now the British fighters apparently discovered the situation. They shook their wings and began to form countless small formations, and then greeted the high-speed towards the black spots.

"They have already caught fire with the Royal Air Force. There are hundreds of them. I can't tell who is who."

"God, it's spectacular!"

Even the battle-admired Admiral Forbes couldn't help admiring what he saw. At the high altitude of Dunkirk, countless fighters of various styles are fighting together. In the airspace of only five or six kilometers, at least about 300 aircraft from both sides were concentrated. They flew up and down and strangled together, and there were planes dragging black smoke or bursting into a ball of fire in the air, tragic and gorgeous, cruel and elegant, **** and spectacular would appear so harmoniously in a space, which gave all the time The people who witnessed the air battle left a deep and unforgettable impression.

Admiral Forbes watched nervously as the planes rolled in the air, circling, sprinting back and forth, fighting each other in circles. He squeezed sweat for the Royal Air Force, and now it seems that the most critical task of this operation really fell on these Air Forces. Now the fight in the air has entered a white-hot stage. From time to time, a parachute will bloom slowly over Dunkerque Port, and there is generally a fire, a spitfire, a hurricane or a Messer near it. Schmitt rolled down. Although it is still impossible to see who will win in the end, from the current situation, the Royal Air Force is somewhat disadvantaged. Admiral Forbes did not dare to think about what kind of massacre would have happened to the small boats that rushed into the port if the air force could not withstand it. It would be the biggest tragedy in British history. Admiral Forbes looked at the air battle with a telescope while praying in his heart that the Royal Air Force could win the final victory.

At this time the turret's fine news began to sound, which indicates that the next salvo of the battleship will begin. Admiral Forbes and the officers quickly hid in the bridge. When the naval gun salvos, the huge sound waves and air pressure can cause damage to any people and equipment nearby, especially this nine main guns are placed on the front deck of the "largest shallow water gunship in the world." It is said that the 406 mm cannons have sometimes caused more harm to themselves than the enemy can. The muzzle storm caused by the c turret shooting backwards even caused damage to the bridge. As a result, the turret was not allowed to turn to that angle for shooting at any time.

"Boom..." With a loud roar, another row of giant shells flew towards the German position. Admiral Forbes immediately looked at the German position with the high-powered telescope near the porthole. He loved the feeling of watching his heavy shells explode violently on the German position.

"Well, very good. All their positions along the coast should be destroyed. Now continue to shoot. Pay attention to the small hillside behind their position. There seems to be several large fortifications there. It may be an observation station for them to order all warships. Aim at the hillside and bombard." Forbes gave orders while watching.

"Observe, General." Captain Mills picked up the phone on the wall and gave orders to the turret and the soldiers.

Forbes excitedly waited for the next salvo of his fleet. Suddenly, he saw from the telescope that a white smoke suddenly rose from the rear of the German position. The white smoke almost covered the entire German rear position in an instant. Living.

"Are you starting to cast smoke to block our shelling? Haha, did the Germans think that this would stop me from leveling their positions? What an idiot."

Forbes laughed, but after five seconds he thought he might be wrong, because the smoke was rising too fast, and it was now dissipating quickly.

"Could it be... the smoke from the German artillery fire, the German artillery can't bear it anymore? Hahaha, the captain, immediately shift the target and let all the warships fire at the smoke area, we finally Found their artillery positions."

"Follow the order, General." Mills still responded to Forbes' order with a solemn expression, but he picked up the phone and began to convey the order.

"They may be firing at those boats. God bless those boats not to lose too much. Anyway, the Germans have only one chance of shelling." Forbes put down the telescope and smiled at the officers beside him. Speaking of.

At this time, there was a sudden explosion of sound from the sea outside the bridge.

"General, destroyer..."

An officer yelled out of the window. Forbes was also taken aback by the sudden explosion, he quickly turned around and looked in the direction of the officer's finger.

The sight in front of him made the admiral stunned.

The six destroyers patrolling the battleship group on the German side are now each surrounded by countless huge water columns triggered by shell explosions, as seen from the black smoke and fireballs rising from the destroyers and the continuous sound of explosions They all had more than one shell in each boat.

"It's an overlay shot! The artillery from the German shore fired an overlay shot at us!" an officer shouted.

But the Admiral did not think so, he picked up the telescope and searched towards the sea around him.;