How is それでも used here?

Question

This is from the anime Black Lagoon, with context: in 1945 a naval corporal tells his crew to prepare for battle against a British ship, an enemy of Nazy Germany (the naval crew in question), but another officer tells the corporal that it is worthless to fight because the defeat of Germany is inevitable and the corporal responds:

Corporal:いや失礼。それでも挑まなければならない戦いもあるのです
I apologize. Despite that, there are still battles that you must take on.

-he proceeds to order torpedos to be prepared for a surface attack, which is enough time for him to climb to a watchpoint on the ship (must be at least a minute I would say), and this exchange occurs:

Sailor:発射管準備よし ！
Corporal:よし行くぞ ！
それでも俺たちは戦うのだ ！
Launcher is ready.
All right, let's go! We will keep fighting!

I get that the それでも is still referring back to how they are still fighting despite defeat being inevitable.
I just wonder if there is some kind of time limit between how long you can point back to their inevitable defeat (それ) that makes this usage kind of odd, or if doubling up the それでも is also a bit odd (is this a common way to use それでも?).
There's a reason why the show's translation of "Despite that" is only present in the first usage.

Answer 1

There is no strict time limit. As long as the listener can understand what それ refers to, you can use それ. Otherwise, suddenly saying それでも would just sound puzzling.

It's hard to explain the second use of それでも without seeing the actual scene, but from what you've described, I think it's one of the following:

• All the listeners (crews) were already fully aware of the current situation, so they could easily infer what それでも meant in the context.
• The corporal said it mostly to encourage himself, and he didn't care if it was a little confusing to the other crews.

Besides, the crews would understand him if this usage of それでも was a bit unclear, anyway. He probably shouldn't say something direct like 負けるとしても, 死ぬとしても or 無意味でも in a situation like this.