"All main guns fired a salvo on the port target after 2 minutes! The orientation is 7 degrees eastward, with a distance of 4300 yards!"

With the issuance of the shooting command, the five main turrets on the German battleship "Election Emperor" slowly turned. After the thick gun barrel was briefly adjusted up, down and left and right, the muzzles were all aimed at the American cargo ship "Mrs. Smith".

Inside the huge turret, the German sailors stuffed heavy shells and fired medicine into the barrel, and everything was going on quickly and in an orderly manner. The gunner commanded his gunner to adjust the shooting elements and conduct visual inspections through the observation port.

For the German naval officers and soldiers aboard the "Election Emperor", this is a rare live-fire exercise.

At this time, Wright, the captain of the "Mrs. Smith", sat in a cozy bed in dismay, while the American sailor next to him was squeezed by the porthole and looked at something.

This is not the cabin of the "Madame Smith", but the "five-star hotel" specially prepared by the German naval cruiser Fremberg for them. Not only are there enough beds here, but there are even bathrooms and bathing equipment.

But Wright and his eighty-nine sailors did not feel at home at all, at least they had no freedom to speak of before being sent back to the United States.

Two minutes passed quickly, and the alarm in the turret of the "Election Emperor" began to sound, indicating that the warship's volley was about to begin, and all the German sailors were waiting attentively.

Boom...

The huge power of the naval guns made the huge hull of the "Election Emperor" tremble. The fire balls sprayed out from the muzzle illuminated the large sea surface on the left side of the warship, and the sea surface below the port side was sunk into large round pits due to the strong air pressure.

This sound was like a bolt from the blue, shocking the eardrums and hearts of Americans.

After their captain was silent, the other American sailors had no resistance at all. All their personal belongings were allowed to be preserved. The only one who suffered losses was probably the owner of the freighter. Now, they were just looking out the porthole with the feeling of watching the fun, hoping that their freighter could waste more waves of German shells.

Unfortunately, the German Navy's precise artillery technique made their last wish fail.

With just one volley, the "Mrs. Smith" was shrouded in the flames of the explosion. The huge hull of the 10,000-ton wheel was split into pieces, and countless pieces were burning and flying on the surrounding sea. The remaining part of the ship sank rapidly in the fire.

This is an expensive fireworks show!

The freighter itself cost more than 1 million pounds, and the goods on it were even more expensive. It can only be said that the owner of the ship deserves to pay for his own speculation, and the US government is beyond refutation. After all, their ships violated the neutral legislation and their citizens were not harmed.

At this time, the American sailors squeezed beside the porthole and watched with relish, while their captain was at a loss.

Wright's mind was repeated as if he was playing a slide.

"Sir, we found a batch of arms in the cargo hold!" A German sailor hurriedly ran to the deck to report to the German officer.

Although I couldn't understand German, Wright's face turned pale.

The situation is obvious, those things cannot be hidden from the Germans at all. For Wright, it is tantamount to being caught in bed.

The German officer glanced at the American captain coldly and followed the sailor toward the cabin without waiting for him to explain anything.

Like a thief caught stealing, Wright pulled his head and followed the Germans dejectedly, thinking about how to defend himself.

There are many pirates recently, are the crew members’ self-defense weapons?

But those weapons are too many!

Offer to Irish Underground Resistance?

Americans are not so kind-hearted, and Germans are not fools!

After thinking about it, Wright had to comfort himself that the Germans would not do anything to this American ship, not to mention that there were nearly 100 American citizens on it. At most, at most, they would lose the weapons smuggled this time. As long as they were kept with the green mountains, they would not be afraid of not making money back next time.

There are ten large compartments under the deck of this large cargo ship, each with piles of wheat in it.

On one of the compartments, the German sailors pulled open the wheat above, revealing rectangular wooden boxes below.

Several wooden boxes had been pried open, bundles of temporarily new rifles, shiny bullets, and dark and solid water-cooled heavy machine guns appeared in front of everyone.

Even if the interests of selling tobacco and alcohol are not as good as those weapons of murder, Americans are naturally very clear about this.

Britain is not a traditional army power. It is easy to recruit hundreds of thousands of new recruits in a short period of time, but enough weapons are not available to British factories. Although all arms factories continue to produce cannons, guns and ammunition 24 hours a day.

"Often a rifle can only be sold for 70 pounds in the market. Now the British army is bidding 200 pounds each, so we will take the risk of transporting these things to the British!" Wright confessed his mistake at an unexpected speed, but he did not regard the German naval officers and soldiers in front of him as police uncles on the Atlantic. He just held the mentality of a hero not suffering from the loss in front of him.

The German officer glanced at him, but said nothing to him, but instead directed his soldiers to check the other cabins and make records in German.

Seeing the Germans' seriousness, Wright felt that they just wanted to take away all the weapons on the ship, so he took the initiative to explain: "Dear Mr. Officer, every cabin of this ship has weapons. I am willing to hand over these weapons to you, and then you will let my sailors and my ship leave, right!"

The German officer ignored him at all this time and still ordered something to his soldiers.

"Okay okay, you guys take away your weapons, and my ship and I return to the United States, how about it?" Wright was no longer as arrogant as he was on the deck. After all, who has the stronger force here, who will speak.

After a while, the German officer turned around and looked at the clown, pointed at a bunch of weapons and said:

"You, come here!"

Wright hesitated for a moment, and walked to the front of the pile of weapons in confusion.

The flash flashed and a white smoke rose. The German sailor took a camera to give the American captain and the weapons he had smuggled.

In this world, the strong always have the final say, but the German Navy decided to keep their gentlemanly demeanor to the end. The evidence is conclusive, so there is no need to worry that the Americans will deny it later.

"Come here! Sign this piece of paper!" The German officer called Wright over and handed him a document.

It was a document confessing that his freighter contained prohibited materials. Wright hesitated for a moment, and finally signed his name obediently. He didn't understand what these Germans were doing, but it would definitely not be a good thing for him.

As he expected, the Germans bet him and his men all on the German cruiser, and they just took a little sample of the weapons on the freighter.

Later, there was the scene of "fireworks" being put on.

"It's over! Mr. Brown will definitely not let me go!" Wright finally came to his senses. He covered his face with great frustration. Although he did not lose his life and was even treated preferentially, he knew very well that he would not have a good life when he returned to the United States. Ten thousand of the vicious ship owners would tear him to pieces.

The Germans ignored the frustrated American captain, and the Hippel formation continued to search for its prey in the vast sea.

After dawn, two seaplanes carried by the Fremberg were hung onto the water one after another, which could greatly increase the search range of the fleet during the day.

When the propeller just started to rotate, the pilot of the No. 1 reconnaissance plane, Lieutenant Schweer, yawned a big yawn. It seemed that the previous shelling disturbed his good sleep. The 25-year-old man had a resounding reputation, the youngest, most handsome and most powerful pilot in the German Atlantic 1st Raid Formation.

Although this title has not been confirmed by the majority of German women, his four competitors, Lieutenant Schneider, the co-pilot of the No. 1 reconnaissance aircraft, the chief and co-pilot of the No. 2 reconnaissance aircraft, and the only substitute pilot, are all willing to give up in front of Schweer's beer, so Schweer's winning of this title is something that everyone hopes for.

Before the plane began to glide on the water, Schville turned his head and glanced at the co-pilot Schneider behind. The guy looked in good spirits today. After checking the transmitter on the plane, he grinned, revealing a terrible bit of rotten teeth.

Schville shook his head. If it weren't for those yellow and black teeth, Schneider would definitely be qualified to compete with him for the title of the handsomest pilot.

The No. 2 reconnaissance plane next to it was also activated by the roar of the engine, and the two drivers on it waved to the side enthusiastically. Unfortunately, they were all from the third place, and Schweiler felt that his age advantage was still very obvious in front of them.

The plane slowly flew away from the water. Second Lieutenant Schweer sighed slightly. He prefers the blue sky, but today the low clouds make the whole world look gray and feels a little depressed.

Fortunately, in this weather, the blue-gray paint of the German Navy reconnaissance aircraft is not conspicuous.

The No. 1 reconnaissance plane searched northwest, and the No. 2 reconnaissance plane searched southwest. The northwest was the direction where Iceland was located, but Schweer's plane could not fly that far.

When the pilots started work, Hippel and his generals were still enjoying a delicious breakfast in the senior officers' restaurant on the Election Emperor. The harvest this morning made each of them feel happy.

"Report to Commander, our reconnaissance planes have taken off!" The report of the officer on duty did not interrupt everyone's mood of eating, but only added a new topic to them.

"It's a wonderful idea to refit the rear deck of the cruiser to carry a reconnaissance aircraft. Our fleet's vision has increased by hundreds of nautical miles at once!"

A colonel put down the knife and fork in his hand and began to speak. Judging from the food left in front of him, his appetite was not small, but his figure was very well-proportioned, which was also a characteristic of naval officers and soldiers. Compared with the terrible figures of some army generals, the naval generals were basically out of reach for the big belly.

Hippel agrees very much. He deliberately stopped delivering food to his mouth for the time being. "Airplanes are indeed a wonderful thing, and the Cornisburg shipyard can always surprise us!"

Half a month ago, the Fremberg ship in the Hippel formation was modified at the Cornisburg shipyard.

"I hope those Americans can get used to our food! I think we will encounter more American ships during this trip. These guys are always everywhere, and they will be seen where there is a benefit!" A colonel who was just cutting pancakes seriously stopped and joined the discussion.

When it comes to Americans, everyone is quite disdainful.

"I don't have any good feelings for Americans! They are just slaves to coins!"

"The Americans seem to be too casual, like savages who have not evolved yet!"

"They are just the Navy and can barely see it. The Army is simply garbage among garbage!"

"I dare say that every American ship will smuggle some weapons, only profit is their nature!"

"It doesn't matter, we have prepared hundreds of beds for them and waited for them to live!"

When the officer on duty walked into the restaurant again, all the voices of condemnation and contempt stopped, and the officers seemed to realize that another prey appeared.

"The No. 2 reconnaissance aircraft production report was found 25 nautical miles southwest with a cruise ship flying with the British flag on it!" The report of the officer on duty confirmed everyone's predictions.

"Okay, everyone! The breakfast ends here, everyone will return to their posts!" Hippel gently wiped his lips with a napkin and walked out of the restaurant first.

The officers also put down their tableware and left the room one by one.

Just half an hour later, the figure of British cruise ships appeared in Hippel's telescope. This kind of cruise ship is the most troublesome ship for German submarines. Although it hangs the British flag, it usually has some neutral passengers on it. The German Admiralty requires submarine troops to attack cruise ships in strict accordance with the provisions of the "Capture Act". For the safety of passengers and crew, investigations, searches and precautions must be carried out before sinking the ship. It is unrealistic to let submarines intercept and search such cruise ships full of passengers, so the German submarine troops on the Atlantic can only watch these cruise ships shuttle on the route.

However, all this will change with the arrival of the German Atlantic raid formation, and the Hippel formation has the honor to set this precedent.

Unlike the Americans, the sailors on the British cruise ship discovered the masts of the three warships that were even more terrifying than the skull pirate flag.

In fact, as early as the German plane painted with white iron crosses appeared above his head, Richard, the captain of the British cruise ship "Newfoundland", had already felt something bad was going to happen. This 9,000-ton cruise ship is a regular shuttle between New York and Liverpool. This time, in addition to ordinary passengers, the ship also carried a group of special people and cargo.

Richard once served in the British Navy. He soon reported the situation of German aircraft in this area to the British mainland, but due to the unclear specific circumstances, he did not rashly change the course of the cruise ship.

When the German fleet appeared, even the experienced Richard was at a loss. After all, no German surface ships had appeared in this sea area. He immediately ordered his sailors to report and seek help from the British mainland again.

After measuring the speed of both sides, Richard decided to accept the Germans' request for a ship stop inspection.

After discovering that the ship speed began to slow down, another important figure on the ship appeared in front of Richard, and the major commander of the Canadian volunteer soldier questioned fiercely:

"Sir Captain, why did you slow down this ship? We should escape from here at full speed!"

"Mr. Major, I'm afraid you've seen it too. There were three German warships ahead of us, one of which was a fast cruiser. With my ship, I have no hope of escaping the Germans, and there are no British warships nearby that can confront those German warships, so..."

Before Richard finished speaking, the Canadian major interrupted him, "You are crazy! This ship is filled with two battalions of Canadian volunteers and a large number of ammunition. Aren't you handing them all over to the Germans?"

"But major, I have to be responsible for the 133 ordinary passengers and 78 sailors on the ship!" The gray-haired Richard explained calmly.

"Oh God! Then I have to order my soldiers to prepare for battle!" The major looked sad. Since the end of September, Canadian volunteers have successively traveled to Britain through this route. He and his soldiers are the first unlucky guys in the Canadian army who encountered the Germans.
To be continued...