.As a German captain who participated in the Battle of Hurgolan Bay, Brigadier General Zeber always remembered the battle scene that day and the tears he and his sailors left when they were forced to abandon the ship.

At that time, the British Empire was still the world's number one naval power, and the German navy was on a cautious defensive. The naval battle broke out in the Gulf of Helgolan was the first competition between British and German surface ships after the outbreak of the war, and it was also the first and last victory of a naval battle in the war. At that time, Zeber, as a German naval lieutenant colonel, commanded an old light cruiser named "Ariadne" to participate in the fierce naval battle: the Germans' six light cruisers and 19 destroyers had to face the sudden appearance of the British ambush fleet consisting of 5 battlecruisers, 8 light cruisers and 33 destroyers before the main fleet arrived. The battle process was without any suspense, and the fierce battle ended with the British's unscathed victory, but the Germans lost three light cruisers and one destroyer, including the "Ariadne".

As time goes by, Brigadier General Zeber was standing in the command room of Germany's most powerful battle cruiser "Deflinger". He will lead the 2nd German navy to participate in the hunt for the new British cruiser "Churchill". A historical scene is staged again, but the positions of both sides are in harmony.

As the sister ship of the Luzov, the Deflinger was put into service in September 1914 and carried out its first large-scale modification in October 1915. The displacement increased to 28,000 tons, the eight dual-mounted 305mm main guns remained unchanged, and the head and tail torpedo launch tube was cancelled. The original oil-coal mixed combustion power was changed to full fuel power, and the speed increased to 28 knots.

On the morning of the second day after leaving the Port of Pascalovro, Zeber's fleet had already sailed over 20 degrees west longitude, which is more than 300 nautical miles south of Iceland. It won't take long for Germany's naval outpost in the Atlantic Ocean to move forward to Iceland, and after that, the time for German ships to enter the Atlantic Ocean will be shortened by at least one day.

"General, Berlin sent a secret telegram!"

When the communications officer came to report, Zebo was thinking about which route the fleet should take.

Zebo did not receive the telegram. Instead, he said a word casually:

"read!"

"Yes! According to local information obtained this morning, a Canadian tugboat and a British destroyer left the Port of St. Johns in eastern Canada and entered the Atlantic Ocean. The specific intentions are unknown. It may be that the "Churchill" has a malfunction or it may be to tow the trophy! But so far, no reports of German merchant ships being attacked!"

After listening to this telegram, Zebo walked to the porthole with his hands behind his back, and from here he could see the undulating sea surface. There was also the accompanying light cruiser "Bum", a 3,000-ton Lipe-class light cruiser, equipped with Krupp to build 4 40-diameter 152mm naval guns and 6 105mm rapid-fire guns. This is also the most common firepower configuration for German light cruisers. The armor protection of this kind of cruiser is not strong, and the side and command tower are both 100mm armor, with a maximum speed of 25 knots, but the cruising capacity is only 4,200 nautical miles. Therefore, the fleet is also equipped with special supply ships to provide fuel supply in the middle.

Although the performance of this Lipe-class light cruiser is not so satisfactory, it is much better than the old cruiser that Zeber served as captain when the war broke out. Moreover, after the war, the German Navy had asked several major military shipyards to design and build an escort cruiser suitable for ocean navigation. The tonnage ranged from 6,000 to 9,000 and equipped with 152mm cannons and water reconnaissance aircraft to protect the increasingly busy German commercial routes. Now, these cruisers are undergoing final installation work on the ship platform, and by early 1917, a batch of new escort cruisers will replace these slightly old light cruisers.

At the same time, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, more than 3,000 nautical miles away, a brand new white cruiser was quietly docking next to a cargo ship that was much larger than it.

The freighter named "Lucky Star" belongs to the German Bremen Shipping Company, with a displacement of 11,000 tons. It departed from Bremen Harbor, Germany a week ago. The loading site on the ship was 6,000 tons of high-quality cement, 500 machine tools and 800 boxes of French red wine. These are all order goods from an import and export company in New York, USA, with an order price of 1.9 million German marks, equivalent to 550,000 US dollars.

After thoroughly inspecting the cabin, British sailors holding rifles gathered 35 crew members, including the captain, on the deck. After that, an officer wearing the uniform of a British naval major announced to them in German that the German cargo ship had been confiscated by the British Empire's Navy and the cargo on the ship belonged to the British Empire from now on. According to international law, crew members here will be allowed to leave on a lifeboat, and after that, whether they die or live, they have nothing to do with the British Empire.

"Sir, it is at least 1,000 nautical miles away from the coast! We have no way to stick to the shore. Can we allow us to send a telegram for help?" The German captain made a very reasonable request. In fact, if the transmitter on the ship had not malfunctioned, they would have sent a report to the country before the British captured him. At first, the captain and his crew planned to scare away the British cruiser with four 105mm cannons on the ship. Then before the other party had entered their range, the whistling shells raised an 8-meter tall water column on the sea not far from the Neptune. The huge gap in strength between the two sides immediately made the German crew give up their unwise plan of resistance. However, as qualified German citizens, they were still very brave to destroy the boiler and turbine equipment of the cargo ship before the British boarded the ship, so that the British could not drive it to Canada before repairing it.

Obviously, British officers became a little hysterical because of this reason:

"Dream! His Majesty the King of England is extremely tolerant of letting you leave alive. For you destructive elements, scoundrels, and obscene embryos, we will not send you a message to the German Navy for you so that they can come here to attack us!"

After saying that, the major turned to the British soldier next to him, "Give them two lifeboats and let them get out!"

Unfortunately, the German captain understood the English he spoke to the soldiers.

"Sir, we have at least 4 boats and enough fresh water and food, otherwise, you are indirectly murdering us!"

"Then you can sue me at the British Empire Military Court!" After a contemptuous smile, the major left without looking back.

Just 10 minutes later, these poor German crew members were forced to squeeze into two small lifeboats and left the Lucky Star. Obviously, the ship's name did not bring them real good luck.

After leaving 20 sailors waiting for the reception on a German freighter, the Churchill quickly sailed towards the next target.

After wandering on the sea for three days, the German crew members on the Lucky Star were rescued by a passing Norwegian cargo ship. Although the attack telegram was sent to the country as soon as possible, the German Navy had lost the opportunity to discover the trace of the Churchill at the first time.

"3 days!" Brigadier General Zebo thought hard about the navigation chart. In 3 days, his opponents can go to many places, including the Portuguese Azores, the Caribbean Sea, or the ports in Canada. In short, he has a lot of imagination and a lot of worries.

"Reported, local telegrams were sent. Due to weather reasons, our reconnaissance airship has returned. I am afraid that it will not be possible to search the nearby waters in the next three days!"

After listening to the report from his subordinate, Zebai looked up and looked out the porthole. The sea was covered with dark clouds and the sky was so dark that it seemed that there would be a storm soon.

"How far is it from the Azores?" Zeber asked his sailing officer.

After a quick calculation, the captain reported the answer: "110 nautical miles!"

Zeber immediately ordered: "The fleet is moving forward at full speed and send a report to Berlin at the same time, we will enter Tserra's Hero Port to shelter from the rain!"

Soon, the task force composed of one battlecruiser, three light cruisers, one seaplane mothership and one supply ship accelerated to a maximum speed of 16 knots. Despite this, it still took at least 7 hours to reach the Azores. However, after four hours, the sea surface wind reached level 10 in a short time, and the originally calm sea surface became rough. Even the "Deflinger" with a displacement of 3 tons was rising and falling in the big waves. The huge waves continued to wash the deck of the battleship, and the sailors had entered the cabin to shelter.

The other warships were even more bumpy. The 5,100-ton seaplane mothership "Runa" was built at the standards of a warship, and it was not too difficult to fight against such winds and waves. However, the 10 "Flying Fish DV"-type seaplanes on it were probably going to fall apart. The supply ship "Glenber" was modified from an 8,000-ton ocean-going cargo ship. After the oil storage tank, medical tank, special offshore oil pipelines and pods were installed, its nautical performance was not improved. The speed of the storm gradually dropped to 11 knots, seriously dragging the fleet down.

But this is not the worst. The experienced Zeba knew that a bigger storm was coming soon.

At the same time, British Navy's Brigadier General Fox and his "Churchill" were also jogging in the wind and waves. Although this new ship strengthened its nautical performance, the waves under the strong wind of Level 10 are a big test for any ship. After studying on the chart for a long time, Brigadier Fox finally made a decision:
Chapter completed!