What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 560 Scored twice
In the violent explosion, the midship section of the 4000-ton Monmouth broke apart.

One of the two Gnat bombers grazed the side of the ship and exploded, blasting a large hole in the hull. The other bomber hit the hull squarely, causing a crack in about one-third of the starboard side.

The two consecutive explosions severely damaged the already torn bow of the Monmouth, which was taking on water. The midships section was not strong enough, and the aft section of the hull, which still retained a lot of kinetic energy, collided violently with the forward section of the hull, which was blocked by the floodwater.

The entire frigate broke off straight through the gap on the right side, with the rear half of the hull sticking up high and even the propeller protruding above the water, while the bow had completely sunk into the water.

Within minutes, the short-lived frigate could not escape its fate of sinking, and the crew members fell into the water one after another like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

The sailors on the other warships were horrified by what they saw, but they were already in dire straits themselves.

77架蚊蚋组成的机群中，正面的27架蚊蚋被击落11架，两侧的2个机群分别还剩下17架和20架。

Because the focus was on the aircraft carrier, only 16 aircraft were used to carry out kamikaze attacks on the four warships, but these were not evenly distributed.

The Gnat squadron that attacked the Type 23 Iron Duke was down to its last aircraft, but it dove with perfect accuracy into the smokestack, causing the Iron Duke to immediately lose power and become a helpless prey.

Unfortunately, the Type 42's old friend, the HMS Southampton, was attacked by a complete swarm of gnats, with five gnats attacking the ship almost simultaneously from the left rear.

The first Gnat hit the stern, directly destroying the destroyer's propulsion system, while the second one flew in through the hangar's tail door, and the remaining three all hit the superstructure.

In just over ten seconds, the Southampton was hit by no less than five heavy bombs. The rear half of the ship continued to explode in a dazzling display of explosions. After that, almost half of the hull disappeared, leaving only the front half lying on its side on the sea.

The other Type 42 ship, HMS Ezecote, also faced five Gnats, but was fortunate enough to shoot one down with its main guns, and the remaining four Gnats mainly crashed into the superstructure without causing fatal damage to the hull.

Two planes crashed into the command center in succession, and although the Essex was still afloat, it had completely lost contact.

Within a minute, the most severely damaged HMS Southampton and HMS Monmouth were powerless to stop the sinking. HMS Essex was badly damaged on its upper deck and caught fire, unable to help itself. Only HMS Iron Duke, which was dead from engine failure, desperately launched lifeboats to transfer personnel and try to salvage friendly ships.

After all, this is not the warm Pacific Ocean. In the cold northern seas, if you fall into the water and are not retrieved within half an hour, you are destined to die.

However, the four warships were not concerned about themselves at this moment, but about the Royal Ark that they were fighting to the death to protect.

……

"Come on, come on, you Hans!"

Philg roared into the public chat and shoved aside the servant who was trying to take him away.

The latter was now nearly collapsing, shouting:
"General, all pilots have been transferred, and the order to abandon ship has been issued from the mainland!"

"Wait a little longer, I can't just give up on her like this!"

Philger was heartbroken. In fact, when the swarm of gnawing aircraft was first discovered, the home base knew that something was wrong. Band and Miles decided to issue an order in just five minutes, requiring Philger to abandon ship at the appropriate time.

However, Philger ignored this and insisted on removing the plane first.

Somewhat ironically, with only 12 fixed-wing carrier-based aircraft, the pilots quickly completed the takeoff, but the most important asset was always the HMS Ark Royal itself.

For a fleet commander who had just been promoted to general and was commanding an aircraft carrier for the first time, fleeing in disgrace on his first battle was humiliating enough, especially since this was the third time Philg had faced the Lost Empire and he really didn't want to run away anymore.

The air defense modifications HMS Ark Royal underwent were far superior to those in the original Worldline, effectively squeezing out five Phalanx CIWS and three Sea Darts, at the cost of sacrificing considerable aircraft takeoff and landing capabilities.

However, this firepower, prepared for saturation attacks by gnats, played an important role at this time. Although the Sea Dart's rate of fire was too slow and far less effective than short-range missiles, the five Phalanx CIWS provided a sufficient close-range death zone.

However, this defensive belt did not play a significant role:
Of the last 37 Gnats, 4 were shot down by the Sea Darts, and a total of 66 AIM-9L missiles were launched.

To maximize reaction time, the Phalanx CIWS is almost fully automatic, so it prioritizes firing at incoming AIM-9L missiles. Although its 4500 rounds per minute 20mm firepower is incredibly powerful and instantly stops a large number of missiles at 1.5 kilometers, the sheer number of missiles still allows nearly half of the AIM-9Ls to penetrate the defenses and fly towards the smokestack, the most sensitive area for the infrared seekers.

The aircraft carrier's island and smokestack were very close together, and Philger almost immediately felt the surroundings shaking as if it were the end of the world, and his ears instantly rang due to the explosion.

However, he still kept an eye on the air situation—gnats were falling!

It's unclear who led the 12 Harriers that took off, or whether they never intended to escape. They took off while the grubs were blocked by four destroyers and flew far away to gain altitude and accumulate potential energy. When more than half of the grubs attacked, they pushed the throttle valve all the way down and swooped down from above the clouds without regard for anything else.

Like the Gnat, the Harrier is a high-subsonic aircraft. After Tang Wen made the latter super-lightweight, it could reach supersonic speeds for a short time. At this time, 12 Harriers also briefly broke the sound barrier by pulling up and diving.

A single Harrier can carry up to six AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles, but due to the hasty takeoff, the entire Harrier fleet only had about 40 missiles at that time. However, the Harriers couldn't care less about that at the moment.

They launched everything they had on their payload: even the LAU rocket pod's 70mm ground-attack rockets were fired all at once, creating a spectacular cloud of smoke in the air.

The Gnatants, busy tearing apart the aircraft carrier, were temporarily unable to deal with the Sea Harriers, allowing the latter to shoot down more than 10 aircraft. HMS Ark Royal finally lost all means of retaliation.

The Phalanx CIWS had already been exhausted during the interception of the AIM-9L, and this time, in order to ensure the sinking of the Royal Ark, Tang Wen used the Gnats as rocket-assisted torpedoes, aiming all of them at the area below the waterline on the broadside.

Philger, who was still excited about the sea harriers returning to help, hadn't even recovered when he saw those little black dots suddenly drop in altitude, seemingly sticking to the surface of the sea!

Finished!

Various countries have conducted in-depth research on the Kamikaze attack of mosquito gnats. Unlike the attacks that were barely effective by the Japanese decades ago, the terminal attack speed of mosquito gnats can basically reach the speed of sound, and there is conclusive evidence that its nose is equipped with nearly 200 pounds of high-energy explosives, which is equivalent to a Harpoon Plus that can dogfight and launch missiles!

The HMS Ark Royal might survive 20 harpoons, but if they were aimed at the waterline...

With his last hope dashed, Philger instructed his attendant to send the farewell telegram that had been prepared long ago. He then took off his belt and tried to tie himself to the control panel, determined to go down with the ship.

However, before he could complete his action, the supersonic attack had already arrived first.

Under the ingenious control of the vacuum tube black box, the first grub just happened to hit the waterline and explode, successfully destroying several nearby watertight compartments and causing everyone on the bridge to fall to the ground.

The underwater explosion of the explosives produced a significant water hammer effect. Although there were no exaggerated fireworks, the towering waves indicated that the ship's hull had been severely damaged.

A second Gnat continued to crash into the breach, while the same thing was happening on the other side of the carrier.

The sea harrier was powerless to stop the frenzied gnats "pilots," and the HMS Ark Royal was, after all, just a small 2-ton aircraft carrier; the gaping holes in its sides were enough to kill it.

By the time all twenty-odd gnats had completed their mission, Philg in the bridge had long since lost consciousness from the shock.

The tilting floor forced the bloodied servant to open his eyes with difficulty, and he immediately saw the mess on the ground and... the faint glow of fire.

The dozens of AIM-9 missiles that hit the smokestack caused structural damage, localized high temperatures that ignited a large fire that is now rapidly spreading to the bridge.

He shook another attendant awake, and by the time the two regained some consciousness, the floor had tilted to a 15-degree angle, and the ship was creaking loudly and unpleasantly. They knew this was the mournful cry of the Royal Ark as it died.

The massive steel ship is twisting under the pressure of the seawater, and is about to become an isolated island on the seabed.

The two men found Philger, who had been knocked unconscious by a piece of sheet metal, and practically crawled out of the hatch.

As the fourth aircraft carrier to continue the name HMS Ark Royal, she was now sunk by the Hans, just like the second-generation HMS Ark Royal 56 years ago.

What's even more coincidental is that both generations of HMS Ark Royal were light aircraft carriers with a displacement of just over 2 tons!
(End of this chapter)