.Two years ago, it was unimaginable that the British King appeared at the maiden voyage of a 7,500-ton cruiser. However, two years later, the "Chorgell" cruiser exiled to the British government navy attracted Edward VIII and a large number of cabinets to watch the ceremony. As the saying goes, time has changed, although the scene is grand, it is full of sorrow.

The naval officers and soldiers in pure white uniforms lined up with serious expressions on the fore deck and ship sideways of the "Churchill" and listened to the decree, followed by declarations such as "inheriting the glorious tradition of the British Empire's navy", "fighting for the country and fighting for honor". Then, amid the roaring salutes, the slender and pure white cruiser slowly sailed away from the Port of Becomo, Canada, in Canada, and began its own voyage.

For the 418 crew members on the "Churchill", unfortunately, this cruiser, which was named "revival" by the British government in exile, had long been targeted by German spies. Just as it had just left Canadian territorial waters, a radio wave sent this important information to Berlin.

"The hopes of the exiled British and Canadian governments must be slaughtered in the cradle!" The German Royal, who was patrolling the French front, personally issued instructions to the Navy, not only should the "Chorgill" not cause losses and panic to Germany's Atlantic routes, but also should give those fools who intend to use maritime raids to confront Germany.

Because of the repeated attacks on freighters, the glorious image formed by the German Navy in the minds of the people since the war has been greatly reduced. The generals of the Navy were already holding their breath. After receiving the instructions of the German Emperor, they immediately formed a special staff team to specifically strangle the "Chorgeel".

On May 9, the German Ocean Fleet, which was evacuating expatriates in Mexico, only the battleship "Keseling", the "Osterfriesland" and the transport fleet continued the expatriates' evacuation work. The battlecruiser "Luzov" led the light cruiser "Volken", "Suton", destroyer "Fenarland", "Arsert" and the supply ship "Bad" formed the first task force to enter the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico.

On the same day, the 3rd German submarine detachment, which was patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, was ordered to search the waters near the Azores. The 12 submarines formed a second task force against the Churchill.

On May 10, the third task force consisting of the battlecruiser "Deflinger", the light cruiser "Bum", the Rovitz, the Reno" and the seaplane aircraft carrier "Runa", and the supply ship "Glenber" entered the Atlantic from the east from Pascal Flo, England. Four naval Zeppelin airships set out in advance, and the search teams formed will conduct a large-scale search of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean if weather permits.

In order to avoid alerting the enemy, the German Ministry of Maritime Transport did not send an alarm to German merchant ships on the Atlantic route, but only used a secret telegram to remind the G511 escort fleet on this route to be alerted.

The net has been opened, and the biggest problem facing the German Navy is when and where will the "Chorgill" appear in the vast Atlantic Ocean.

At this time, British Navy Brigadier General Fox and his crew were not aware of the active deployment of the Germans against them. Before that, British attack ships could basically return with full load every time they left the port. For this navy loyal to Edward VIII, the obstacle to achieving more results was not their opponents, the German navy or the German merchant ships, but their own strength limited the number and distance of attacks.

Before the fall of the land, a large amount of wealth from the British royal family, government and civilians were transferred to Canada, but the shipyards they once proud of were unable to transfer to Canada. Many cargo ships carrying equipment and machine tools were either sunk by German submarines or captured by German surface ships. Instead, cruise ships carrying civilians and valuables could pass through the German navy's blockade from time to time - which was obviously due to the "mercy" of the German navy. After the war, the Americans signed a memorandum with Germany for their own interests that the German navy must not attack North American ports, which made the British government in exile and Canada seize a thick life-saving straw, because with the colonial army transferred from India and the newly recruited Canadian army, the army they could use to encircle Canada was only 300,000. Moreover, the equipment and supplies were in short supply and morale was very low.

The defense problem was solved, but the Edward VIII government found that the navy they had was only a few dilapidated ships, and the only battleship "Default" battleship had become their last spiritual pillar. As the first Darkless class battleship to serve 10 years ago, its firepower, armor and speed were not inferior to those of the younger generation, which was the essence of British ship technology. However, the British naval generals who suffered a lot in the war said that they would not let the "Default" challenge the powerful German navy alone, and even less far away, let it go to the Atlantic to attack the Atlantic, because it "would inevitably lead the German navy's battle fleet to the Atlantic Ocean." Therefore, since 1915, this 20,000-ton giant ship equipped with 10 305mm cannons could only be quietly anchored in a port in eastern Canada, and could occasionally go to the offshore to move occasionally when the weather was good.

After barely acting as the facade, the British had only two 3,000-ton protective cruisers and seven 1,000-ton and 1,300-ton ground destroyers. Although the two protective cruisers were new goods to be put into service after 1900, their firepower and defense were not comparable to ordinary combat cruisers. Their speed of 25 knots and the endurance of 8,000 nautical miles made them useless. The seven river-class and tribal-class destroyers were destroyers with obvious British imperial naval design styles - high speed, large number of naval guns and strong firepower, and only carried 2 torpedo tubes. They were originally designed to deal with large German torpedo boats, with poor ocean navigation performance and very limited endurance.

With a small number of supply ships, freighters and medical ships, these less than 30 ships constitute the "Imperial Navy" of the British government in exile. With the coastal defense power of the Canadian Dominion, this navy can no longer see any shadow of the glorious period. Despite the bleak situation, Edward VIII's Imperial Navy sank and captured Duodat German merchant ships between July 1915 and May 1916, and gave the German Great West in two small-scale naval battles.

The foreign fleet caused certain losses. With the support of the Canadian government and the civilians, the Imperial Navy obtained a considerable amount of reconstruction funds. Although the plan to purchase ships from the United States was lost, some new shipyards were successively established along the eastern coast of Canada. In addition to the original shipyards in Canada, the annual shipbuilding volume in areas controlled by the British government in exile has increased to 250,000 tons. The completion and service of the large cruiser "Chorgill" is a sign of their further improvement in their shipbuilding level.

Brigadier Fox was very proud to be able to command the second largest warship of the "Imperial Navy" to go out to sea for raids. He had served in the British Empire Navy for 22 years, served as the commander of the British Navy's 3rd Destroyer Detachment, participated in the glorious Battle of Hurgolan Bay, and experienced the nightmare of the Imperial Navy - the North Sea War, and survived by luck. He then participated in the special fleet organized by Navy Minister Churchill, and was attacked by the German fleet on his way back from the United States. Fox once again survived. In the late war, he retreated to Canada with most of the officers of the Navy and once became a "short captain" without warships.

The ones sent to attack the German Atlantic route were protective cruisers and modified destroyers with increased endurance. It would be fine if they encountered a fleet of German warships escorted by German warships, they would only escape in shame. What made the "Imperial Navy" officers lose their faces was the attack of the destroyer "Severn" three months ago. The 1,300-ton destroyer was discovered on the New York-Liverpool route.

When the German armed merchant ship was about to lean on to capture the other side, the "Severn" was about to lean on and capture the other side, the "Severn" was destroyed by a few 120mm shells fired from the German ship. The "Severn" had to fire two torpedoes from afar and then turn around and retreat. The final result was naturally that the German ship drove away in a swagger. After arriving in the United States, it made the British exile government very embarrassed.

Looking at his brand new warship, Brigadier General Fox believes that he will never commit "Sevangel"

The low-level error of the USS. The Churchill is a large cruiser. Although the caliber of the eight main guns is only 152 mm, the speed of the volley can reach 5 rounds per minute, which is twice that of the 203 mm naval gun. This warship also uses a unified directional shooting command system for the entire ship and an advanced rangefinder introduced from the United States. It is no less than that of the 10,000-ton armored cruiser in various countries in terms of shooting accuracy and speed. What's more important is that the ship designer of the Imperial Navy finally put it down this time.

Drawing on the advanced design concept of the Germans, the Churchill adopts a small compartment and watertight door structure. It has added 30 mm of armor to key parts such as ammunition depots, cabins and command towers. The side armor reaches 100-152 mm and the waterline armor is 25 mm. It is already "solid skin and thick flesh" for a cruiser, especially a British cruiser. In order to increase the resistance to wind and waves, the Churchill adopts the design idea of ​​increasing the aspect ratio and lengthening the waterline.

With the premise that the firepower is not reduced and the defense is strengthened, the Churchill uses 8 heavy oil boilers and 4 steam turbines, with a maximum speed of 28 knots, can carry 1,650 tons of heavy oil and a cruising capacity of 7,500 nautical miles.

What made Edward VIII and his staff feel very pleased was not only the completion of the "Churchill" and its service. Although the British land was lost, the Canadian colony was still full of hope of making a comeback. As the world's third largest mineral-producing country after the United States and Russia, Canada is rich in oil, iron ore and other resources. Although it lacks heavy industrial equipment and large shipbuilding facilities, they at least retained a complete government and a large amount of wealth. In addition, the population and resources of the Australian, New Zealand and Indian colonies are only a matter of time to revive it.

Of course, their archenemy, the Germans, understand this better than them. In fact, Canada is not really "never invaded" as the British government in exile promotes.
Chapter completed!