Chapter 390: Brest

Darlan swore that this was the first time in his life he had been so happy to see the German Air Force. As the dense formation of German fighters slaughtered the British planes in the sky, Darlan gave the order to carry out emergency repairs on the Dunkerque and to withdraw from the battle.

“General, aren’t we going to press the attack now and help the German Air Force take out the attacking British fleet?” Darlan’s adjutant asked with a frown.

“It’s easy to chase them out, but if the British were to take us down with them before they die, the Valiant and the King George V could definitely send us to the bottom of the sea before they themselves sink,” Darlan said with a helpless sigh. “Besides, we don’t have much ability to pursue now. We only have four main guns, and the ship’s speed has also been affected.”

Amidst the roar of the engines and the enthusiastic cheers of the French sailors, in just a few short minutes, the German Air Force had torn more than 30 British planes to shreds. Because of the huge gap in technological and tactical advantages, when the German Air Force outnumbered its opponents, it often reminded one of a flock of vultures. These great mechanical birds would circle and dive in the sky, and in a few passes, they would tear their prey to pieces.

The victory in the sky had saved the French fleet in the naval port from a disastrous fate. The British, as expected, had also given up their continued shelling and had begun to flee at full speed. But whether they could escape the joint strangulation of the German navy and air force was another matter.

With the attitude of “it’s none of my business, so I’ll just let it be,” Darlan began to command his troops to reduce their losses and to carry out emergency repairs on the warships. The harbor was a complete mess. Almost half of the French warships had been damaged by the British. One heavy cruiser and one light cruiser had been sunk, and one gunboat had been turned into a pile of scrap metal. The only aircraft carrier they had had also been destroyed.

The British had proven their strength with their own actions. Even when their main force had suffered heavy losses and their morale was at rock bottom, their accurate gunnery, maintained by good training, was more than a notch better than the French Navy’s. Although the entire gun battle had only lasted for less than half an hour, the British had hit their targets as many as eleven times, while the French had only hit the Valiant once.

Although this was related to the fact that the French were in port, where the warships were relatively dense and most could not move, while the British naval vessels were moving at high speed outside the port, the gap between the training levels and gunnery skills of the two sides was still very clearly displayed.

Even the German Naval Field Marshal, Raeder, who had later come to the Brest naval port to console the French Navy, had been shocked by the level of the British gunnery. To have quickly sunk the Admiral Graf Spee in a night battle, and to have heavily damaged the main force of the French Navy in a gun battle—this kind of strength was indeed not an opponent that could be defeated in a frontal engagement.

Raeder later wrote in his diary: “Only now do I know the brilliance of the Führer in planning the construction of the navy. The British Royal Navy is almost invulnerable in both quantity and quality. If it weren’t for the Führer using the naval air arm to change the mode of naval warfare, then even with the construction of 20 battleships, Germany would not have been able to ensure its maritime advantage… let alone to achieve such a glorious combat record.”

The smoke of the gun battle in the Brest naval port had not yet dissipated, and the naval battle not far from the port had already begun. The whistling German naval air arm of 80 planes had begun to fiercely attack the British naval fleet. And the British naval fleet was fleeing while returning fire. For a moment, the scene was not at a disadvantage.

If one were to say that the commanders of the British Royal Navy had plucked up their courage and had dared to carry out the mission of a surprise attack on the French fleet, then to engage the German High Seas Fleet in broad daylight was undoubtedly a situation where no one would dare to fight, even if you were to lend these British captains some courage. The moment they saw the German carrier-based aircraft, almost all the British warships had only one thought left—to run away quickly.

The terrified commander of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, Lawrence, was naturally the smartest of the runners. Twenty minutes ago, he had already led three destroyers south. Now he had almost broken away from the main battlefield, and because the route he had chosen was south rather than north, he had avoided the German navy’s main interception area and had actually managed to escape the German navy’s pursuit.

But apart from the lucky aircraft carrier Ark Royal, the other main warships of the British Navy that had participated in the operation this time were not so lucky. The battleship HMS Valiant, which had been hit by a shell once, had had several of its anti-aircraft gun positions damaged, which had created a vacuum in its anti-aircraft fire. And so the German planes, which had noticed this flaw, were like vultures that had seen carrion, like flies that had smelled a stench, and they had pounced on the wounded British battleship Valiant in swarms.

A Stuka dive bomber had locked onto its target with its gunsight at a high altitude and had dived down at extreme speed with a whistling scream. At the same time, the two 20mm cannons on its wings had spat tongues of flame. The tracer rounds had drawn a straight line and had swept toward the middle of the Valiant‘s hull, kicking up a shower of dazzling sparks.

At a close enough position, the Stuka had dropped the 500-kilogram aerial bomb that was slung under its belly and had then sharply pulled up its nose. The entire plane’s speed had been sharply reduced, and the bomb, by inertia, had charged directly toward the funnel of the battleship Valiant. The entire Valiant had trembled slightly from the huge impact.

Several of the British sailors who were at the nearby anti-aircraft gun positions had seen the bomb pierce some of the central armored parts and had charged all the way into the interior of the warship. They had closed their eyes in despair and had prayed countless times in their hearts that the bomb would not cause too much damage.

Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet had begun to tremble violently, as if they were experiencing an earthquake of magnitude eight on land. The middle of the entire warship had been pushed up like a balloon by the huge impact, and then, with a muffled roar, the entire deformed hull had rapidly fallen back. A huge airflow had scattered in all directions, blowing all the sailors on the deck into the sky.

“The Valiant is finished!” On the bridge of the battleship King George V, which was nearby and was constantly dodging torpedoes, frantically firing a barrage into the sky, the sharp-chinned captain sighed and then once again commanded his adjutant, “Continue to maintain anti-aircraft fire. The warship is to accelerate to maximum speed. Have the surrounding cruisers and destroyers keep up. Abandon the Valiant. Maintain formation and continue north.”

“The Ark Royal is heading south. They have already broken contact with the German planes,” a telegraph officer reported loudly, handing over a message.

“Bastard! Last time he abandoned the Hermes and ran on his own, and this time he has abandoned us to the Germans and has run on his own!” the British captain said, spitting with hatred. “This Lawrence! When I get back, I won’t let him off!”

“We’ve lost contact with the Furious. A destroyer has confirmed that the Furious was hit by a torpedo. This is the last message we have from the Furious,” the adjutant said with a sigh. “If we are also finished this time, then the British Navy’s Home Fleet will be completely finished.”

“Don’t say such discouraging words! Full left rudder, full speed ahead!” the captain said with a frown, commanding loudly. “Continue to fire at the sky! You go to the anti-aircraft command platform outside. Have the anti-aircraft director pay attention to all positions, high and low. We can’t let the German planes slip through!”

Just as he was giving the order, the battleship Valiant, which had already been left behind, had broken in the middle. Its bow and stern had begun to rise, and it had broken in two and had sunk rapidly. The sea was covered with oil, as well as corpses and some shattered wooden planks and lifebuoys.

And in the original core of the British naval fleet, the aircraft carrier Furious was already burning with a great fire. Thick smoke billowed, carrying a scorching heat as it rose into the sky. A German aerial bomb had accurately hit the bridge of the carrier Furious, and in an instant, it had completely destroyed the command system of this carrier. The subsequent attack was a smooth flow. Three torpedoes had hit the broadside of the carrier Furious. The entire carrier had listed, and its ammunition had cooked off. The interior was already no different from an oven.

This time, although the British had heavily damaged the French Navy, they had also gambled away their last bit of their foundation. The German fleet was now in pursuit of the last operational battleship of the British mainland, the King George V. And the other warships were either sunk or wounded, and half of them had already lost their combat capability. Anyone who was not a fool knew that the British Royal Navy’s Home Fleet was finished.

Lawrence looked at the sea not far away. It seemed to be so calm that it was refreshing, but both he and George beside him knew that that place must be a sea of fire, a scene of continuous disaster. Although they had escaped the pursuit of the German naval fleet and had preserved the last operational aircraft carrier for Britain, everyone knew that the British Royal Navy was already a hero in his twilight, at the end of his road.

The Mediterranean fleet had long been suppressed by the Italian Navy to the point where it could not even breathe. In the Far East, the Japanese army was bogged down in a quagmire of war on the Chinese mainland, but the Japanese navy had moved south rapidly and had already caused the British Far East Fleet to send numerous urgent telegrams. The Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic were also lifelines that Britain could not give up. The number of troops that could be spared was not as large as imagined. The strength that the British Navy could use to resist the German invasion was almost completely exhausted.

The Furious had sunk, and had not even had time to send out a final message. The Valiant had sunk, also with incredible speed. The King George V had finally managed to escape the pursuit of the German Navy and had returned to its own port under the desperate cover of its land-based fighters.

But this warship would not be able to fight for a short period of time. Because its “A” turret had been hit by a bomb and had been destroyed into a pile of scrap metal. The area near the bridge had also been bombed beyond recognition. Fortunately, because the armor was thick, there had been no major problems. The hull had been hit by a torpedo, and the flooding had caused the entire ship to list by 15 degrees. The damage control department’s assessment report had confirmed that this warship would have to be repaired for at least half a year before it could return to the combat sequence.

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