"Dear Führer, the submarine forces have discovered yet another American flotilla suspected of being British ships in disguise. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info They appear in the West Europa basin east of 20 degrees west longitude and do not look like real American ships by any means. I ask you to grant the Navy the power to act cheaply and allow submarine forces to attack on the spot. In the central office of the Berlin Chancellery, the commander-in-chief of the Navy, Raeder, said to Hitler with a solemn face.

Hitler stood in front of a huge map of the world with his hands in his hands, and after a moment, he slowly shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Marshal, I can't allow you to do this. On 3 September, I issued an order strictly prohibiting naval attacks on ships flying the flags of neutral countries, especially those of the United States. If they are to be intercepted, they must be carried out in strict accordance with international law. ”

"But this fleet is clearly the British with the American flag!" In the face of Hitler's opposition, Raeder's heart became anxious, and even his usual respectful and decent words became agitated, "Since the beginning of December, the number of times our submarines have spotted British merchant ships has decreased dramatically, and they have been replaced by frequent encounters with American fleets. As a result, our ocean-going breakdown came to an almost complete standstill, sinking less than 50,000 tons of British ships in three weeks. The situation is already obvious, the British, in order to reduce their losses, put all their transport ships under the American flag; And we must not sit idly by and watch the British breathe so freely with the outside world, and we must tighten the rope around their necks with all our might. ”

"If I lift the Navy's ban on attacks on ships flying the American flag, my marshal, can you guarantee that there will never be any accidental hits?" Hitler turned his head and asked Raeder with a calm expression.

Raeder was so emotional that he almost blurted out a "absolutely". However, after all, he was an old-school soldier who had been in charge of the German Navy for 12 years, and the calmness and composure flowing in his own blood instantly pulled him back to the track of reason and pragmatism. Absolute avoidance of accidental hits is obviously not guaranteed. Although today's United States, based on the lessons of its own involvement in the world war in 1917, amended the neutrality legislation on November 3 and also demarcated the European Maritime Theater and prohibited American merchant ships from sailing; However, this kind of "cash and carry" on the surface does not stop American companies and individuals from taking risks.

Under the lure of the golden pound sterling, many American shipping companies chose to pick up the British. They sailed to England with their own ships laden with cargo in order to seek high remuneration several times that of regular transportation. And the sailors hired by these companies are not Commonwealth nationals such as Canadians and Australians, but are mostly natives of the United States.

Quite incommensurate with the so-called "brilliant success of the New Deal" that the Roosevelt administration tried so hard to advocate, the unemployment rate in the United States has not been fundamentally solved under the effect of the New Deal, which lasted for six and a half years. In 1933, as many as a quarter of workers in the United States were unemployed, and by the end of 1939, that figure remained above the staggering high level of 17 percent. More than 8.5 million people of working age and their families live in poverty with no stable source of income, barely able to make ends meet.

And you know, even in 1931, two years after the collapse of the Wall Street stock market, the unemployment rate in the United States was only 16%! In this case, even though they knew that there would be a certain risk of going to the European theater with the ship, the American people who applied for the recruitment of sailors still flocked to it!

According to the intelligence of the German Navy, in Liverpool, Southampton and other major ports in western Britain, real American ships enter the port every day to unload their cargo. And the possibility of these American ships forming a fleet is also present. Given the lucrative benefits of transporting supplies to Britain, it was only natural for Americans to wonder how they could mitigate the risks: if a ship was unlucky enough to be hit by a German submarine, wouldn't it be worth losing all its money with its cargo and ship? Rather than leaving every ship to fate, it may be a better choice to gather a few dozen ships to act together: in the face of this neutral ship under the Stars and Stripes, it is difficult for a single German submarine to have the confidence and ability to choose to surface for search.

Seeing that Raeder opened his mouth, but finally said nothing, Hitler naturally understood the answer in his heart. He took a deep breath and said slowly: "My marshal, you should not forget which country entered the war that led to our humiliating defeat 20 years ago. One incident on the Athena is enough, and we're nowhere near strong enough to go head-to-head with that North American giant. ”

Raeder's eyes darkened, and he nodded slowly. As for the reasons for Germany's defeat in World War I, which is now unanimously defined by German society and the propaganda media as "a stab in the back for Jews and traitors to democracy", it is clear that as a member of Germany's highest decision-making hierarchy, he is aware of many underlying factors that lie beneath the surface.

Leaving aside Germany's own strategic mistakes, America's entry into the war was a fundamental death sentence for Wilhelm Germany. The country's comprehensive war potential is 3 times that of Germany, and there is no possibility of being drawn by a ****, how can such a war be fought? If it is simply a trilateral entente between Britain, France and Russia, even if the anti-bone Italy is added, the German-Austrian alliance can be invincible. But if you add the United States, Germany really can't do anything!

More than 20 years ago, the United States opened the curtain of its declaration of war on Germany on the pretext that Germany launched an unrestricted submarine war. Hitler drew the bitter lessons of the past and repeatedly ordered the Navy to confirm the identity of their targets before launching an attack on 21 August, before the submarine forces secretly attacked the ocean, so as to avoid accidentally injuring the Americans and drawing hatred on them. However, the unexpected mishit came at the first time.

At 10 o'clock in the evening of September 3, less than 10 hours after Britain declared war on Germany, an American cruise ship "Athena" with 1,400 passengers on board was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-30 as an armed merchant ship. Because the German submarine was using an oxygen torpedo with a charge of up to 550 kg, the ship's ship, which broke and sank rapidly, brought heavy casualties when it boarded: more than 90% of the passengers were killed, and nearly 300 of them were American citizens!

Rao is the attention of the world media, all attracted by the glorious victory of the German Navy in the Scapa Bay surprise attack that morning, but this tragic shipwreck, comparable to the Titanic, still focused the attention of countless people. In the face of the fierce questioning of the American ambassador, Hitler and Raeder denied it and patted their chests to assure that none of the German submarines were in that area at the time of the incident. In order to clear the suspicion, Raeder even provided the other party with some top-secret submarine deployment maps.

Although in the end, due to the lack of evidence, the Americans could only knock out their teeth and swallow them in their stomachs, but Raeder could imagine it with his ass, and the Americans must have held a grudge against themselves. If there is a similar misfire in the German Navy, God knows what kind of situation will develop in German-American relations? (To be continued.) )