"General, the telegraph room has received another encrypted signal that cannot be cracked, preliminarily presumed to be from the southeast!"

On the bridge of the old British cruiser USS Hawkins, Rear Admiral Amos, who was over sixty years old, put down the microphone in his hand full of worry. Early this morning, as soon as I arrived on the bridge from the cabin, I learned that the telegraph room had intercepted six or seven encrypted messages in the early hours of the morning; All of these signals are undecipherable ciphers, and most of them come from seas that are not too far away from you, and one of them even comes from the area where your fleet is located. Considering that Britain was now at war with Germany, the sender of these ciphers was about to come out - since he couldn't crack it, it could only be the Germans!

Faced with this situation, the elderly major general was worried and confused. I am worried that the location of my fleet is likely to have been exposed, and the secret message sent from my own waters is the most direct evidence. In this regard, Amos was actually not surprised or shocked, after all, the practice of more than a dozen merchant ships turning on their navigation lights at night was too public, and if there happened to be an uninvited guest nearby last night, it could be said that it was a normal thing to find yourself.

However, the large number of encrypted messages intercepted in the telegraph room next made Amos completely unable to understand what was going on. Only 1 German submarine spotted itself last night, and it was normal to send a telegram, but what about those telegrams that came out of nowhere else after that? What was it that made the Germans break the radio silence one after another, which was completely different from what he experienced in the convoy during the last battle! Could it be that the Germans, who were reporting in other seas, also found some important targets?

Although Amos was puzzled by this strange phenomenon. But the experience of being in the army for half a life made him intuitively believe that this was definitely not a good thing for his fleet. The willingness of the Germans to risk exposure to generate electricity speaks in itself about the gravity of the situation. Otherwise, there is no reason for the other party to do this! After a long silence. At noon, Amos ordered the fleet to turn its course from due east to northeast. His thoughts are clear, and for whatever reason, it is absolutely not wrong to be cautious.

But what Amos never expected was that his turn turned out to be like a hornet's nest of the Germans. Less than fifteen minutes after the fleet turned, a new unknown telegram came out of its own waters, and Amos was even more stunned. It's another blowout of German telegraphs! In just half an hour, our correspondent intercepted 4 more messages, and their sources were also from the same area of the previous telegrams!

Faced with this strange situation. Amos, who was shaken in his heart, ordered the fleet to turn around again in the afternoon, but soon, a similar telegram blowout was repeated, like Izanami's cycle. At this time. A terrible thought finally crossed Amos's mind: all these unknown coded telegrams were related to him. What the Germans are sure to do with their own convoy!

"Order all lookout posts to keep an eye on their surroundings!" Amos gritted his teeth and gave the adjutant this order, which was not an order. Although he has guessed the enemy's goal, he does not know what the enemy will use against him; Under the heavy confusion, he can only ask the officers and soldiers to strengthen their vigilance to deal with the unknown challenges ahead. Faintly, a strong sense of foreboding arose in the hearts of the old and young generals; For the future of tomorrow, for the first time, he created a strong crisis and urgency that lies ahead of the abyss of hell.

6km from the sea behind the British fleet. There is a periscope that blends perfectly with the color of the sea, and it is closely watching the former's every move. Unless British seafarers stare at this position for a long time with high-powered telescopes. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to spot the fine white flowers produced by the periscope rod as it moves on the surface of the sea. About 6 meters down from the mirror, U-99 captain Captain Krezimer was standing on the other side of the mirror, all his energy devoted to monitoring the British fleet in the distant sea.

"These Englishmen are so cunning that they actually changed their course twice in a row in one day, and it seems that they know they are being followed." The thin young navigator said in a deep voice. He looked at the watch on his wrist, and there was a hint of longing on his calm face. Since 3 a.m. today, its own submarine has been silently tracking the target underwater for 15 hours; Now it's time for the sun to set again, and night is finally about to come again. At that time, the 4 submarines in the vicinity will come to help, and you will no longer have to continue to hold back!

"It seems that the frequent contact between several of our submarines has made the British who intercepted the telegram wary." Krezimer, who had been standing in front of the periscope, suddenly spoke. He took two steps back, motioned for the thin youth to replace his surveillance, and said again: "Perhaps we should make some improvements in the concrete implementation of swarm tactics: so that ordinary submarines do not need to report to the command submarine frequently, and only need to inform their location before attacking. This may save you a lot of trouble. ”

While he was thinking about it, the telegraph in front of him suddenly made a dripping sound; Along with the operation of the rotor of the Ennig cipher machine connected to it, a telegram was quickly transcribed by the correspondent. After opening the codebook and translating it again, the communicator, with a bruised face, took off his headphones and said to Krezimer: "Captain, the U-100 has sent a message that they will be able to reach the predetermined ambush position in three hours. ”

Krezimmer nodded, his expression calm. This submarine is the latest of the four sea wolves, and when it is in position, the attack will begin tonight. In fact, the U-100 arrived late only relatively, and most of the half-day voyage was a pediatric for a submarine. The reason why these submarines were able to come so quickly was due to the orders issued in advance by Wilhelmshaven, allowing them to carry out a focused search in this fixed and narrow sea area. In this situation, which seemed to be an unpredictable prophet, Krezimmer knew that he had the merits of a German intelligence officer; After sincerely thanking the unknown unsung heroes, his eyes gradually brightened, and his heart was filled with a strong desire for battle and victory.

The black clouds rolled, and at the beginning of night, the light on the sea surface quickly decreased in geometric multiples. Near 9 o'clock, Krezimmer ordered the submarine to surface and move forward at a speed of 14 knots. Although the British fleet was no longer visible on the sea, the German submarines had excellent sonar to rely on: by listening to the sound of the ship's propellers in the water, the U-99 could clearly determine the direction of the target, an effect almost comparable to that of radar. Krezimmer was convinced that the other four sea wolves must be the last to approach before attacking, just like him. I won't be fighting alone tonight.

Perhaps the British sailors knew that they had been spotted by the German submarines, and they did not turn on their sailing lights again tonight, but for the underwater hunters, none of this mattered. The U-99 had no scruples in liaising with several nearby submarines, directing them to various attack directions. On the cruiser Hawkins, the old and young general Amos was shocked: a large number of communication waves suddenly appeared in the sea area where he was located, which can only show one problem, that is, there are already several German submarines, all around his fleet!

"Could it be...... German submarines began to fight in groups! Amos' eyes widened suddenly, and he blurted out.

"Boom!" On the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, which is rarely calm, at this moment, an earth-shattering roar that is 100 times more violent than spring thunder suddenly exploded. A dazzling red purple light appeared like a blazing sun, instantly appearing on the side of a grain carrier on the left side of the fleet; While illuminating the nearby sky and sea, it also illuminates the surging wild waves. In an instant, the ship carrying 4,000 tons of grain sank like an iron pot with a hole in a stone, and disappeared completely into the sea in less than half a minute!

"German submarines! It's a German submarine! With the huge light and flames produced by the explosion, the British seamen, who were stunned by the scene, finally found the perpetrator less than 300 meters away. The screams of surprise suddenly resounded in the air, and several high-powered searchlights immediately locked onto its slender black hull, which seemed to be the most dangerous demonic body. Illuminated by the bright light, British seafarers could clearly see the word "U-74" spray-painted on its fin-like conning tower.

After a brief moment of confusion, the escort destroyer, which was on the left side of the flotilla, opened heavy fire with its deck guns on the uninvited guest, who was mostly hidden underwater; However, due to the fact that the distance could not be found in a hurry, the falling shells were lost one after another. The commander of the U-74 submarine also seemed to have woken up from a dream, and when the cannon roared on the sea, he began to hurriedly order the submarine to dive urgently, but fortunately it was not injured by shells.

"Phoenix, this big idiot, he was illuminated by the explosive fire of the torpedo he fired!" Seeing the lights and artillery fire suddenly boiling in the northeast of the fleet, Krezimer, who was several kilometers away, instantly understood what was happening, and couldn't help but curse loudly. Under normal circumstances, a torpedo that explodes at a certain depth in the water will not produce much light on the surface of the water, but will only rush into a huge column of thick and towering water. However, the torpedoes used by German submarines were fundamentally different from ordinary products. (To be continued.) )