"Captain Wilson, come and see this."

Nicholson smiled and handed the newspaper to the other party.

"Oh? The warships of the German Navy disappeared without a trace, and the Nazis invented new weapons. It seems to be a myth made up by some imbecile newspaper editor, Your Excellency Commander. ”

Captain Wilson glanced at the newspaper headline and said with a smile.

According to reliable sources...... The Nazis have invented technology that will make warships invisible, and a massive landing will likely happen in two weeks? Hah, this stuff is complete nonsense, sir. They really made it up, and I really admired the imagination of those reporters.

Sir, the journalist who writes this should be recruited into the Royal Navy's Intelligence Service, he can easily get his hands on this highly classified information, and it seems that our highly trained intelligence officers should quit their jobs and go home to farm and raise cattle. Haha, which newspaper is this? ”

Wilson flipped the page.

"The Telegraph! Why are they starting to post this kind of garbage? ”

The captain said in surprise.

"Well, they were cautious, and The Times made the headlines of the article."

Nicholson took a sip of his tea, then put down his cup and stood up.

"These are the newspapers that came in yesterday, and I think the people of the streets of London must be talking about this myth by now, Mr. Wilson."

"Perhaps, Your Excellency, Commander. But I don't think anyone with a brain would believe this. I was a little dismayed that the Times, which had always been rigorous, had degenerated to the point of publishing such gossip. ”

Wilson threw the newspaper in his hand onto the chart table, then took off his military hat and said with a wry smile as he brushed his hair on his forehead.

Nicholson straightened the hem of his uniform, then straightened his sleeves. The wide gold ribbon and a narrow gold concentric circle on the cuffs of the military uniform looked even more golden under the sunlight shining in from the porthole.

"Mr. Wilson, they are not mistaken, that the German naval fleet has indeed disappeared from Wilhelmshaven. However, their whereabouts are now in our hands, but they cannot be disclosed to the public. There's a reason why London agrees that newspapers publish this kind of thing, and it's the easiest way we use to confuse our enemies, and it's always been effective. ”

"I know that, Commander. But this made me wonder, where did the German fleet go? Sir. Wilson asked respectfully.

"It's classified, but I can tell you, Colonel. We have accurate information that two days ago the entire German fleet had secretly crossed Swedish waters. Those battleships are now all gathered in the German port of Kiel for repairs, and it seems that their ships have also suffered a lot of damage in the early battle. ”

"Oh, I see, it looks like the German Navy won't be making any big moves in the near future, thank you for telling me this secret, sir."

"Just don't tell anyone else, Colonel." Nicholson said with a smile.

"Of course, sir." Wilson nodded in reply.

"Alright, it's a nice day, can you walk with me on the deck?" Wilson. Nicholson took the military hat handed over by the adjutant and said to Wilson with a smile.

"Leave it to them here, go out for a walk with me, we still have a long way to go."

"Yes, sir."

"Mr. Kotster!" Wilson called out to the first mate.

"Yes, Captain."

"I'll leave it to you. When I arrived, Sood immediately sent someone to inform me. ”

"Sir, obey, sir!" The first mate replied respectfully and loudly.

The captain nodded, then put on his military hat and walked off the bridge after Nicholson.

Commodore Nicholson enjoyed walking on the flat deck of the battleship, and watching the sailors work methodically at their posts gave him a sense of accomplishment.

The Navy is like a sophisticated machine, and he is now close to the heart of this machine.

Nicholson felt the harmonious rhythm of the machine as it was running, and felt the tremendous power behind this harmony. He enjoyed the feeling so much that he had this huge power in his own hands, and every time he couldn't help but tremble with excitement.

Nicholson was an experienced veteran of the Navy who had been moving back and forth in the position of commander of the destroyer detachment until then. Someone once joked that if the Royal Navy wanted to organize all the destroyers into a fleet one day, the Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet would be none other than Nicholson, who had served in all the destroyer fleets of the Royal Navy.

Although it was a joke, it was also true that this fifty-four-year-old naval officer was indeed one of the Royal Navy's leading destroyer fleet commanders.

Nicholson, of course, did not want to remain in the position of commander of the destroyer fleet all the time, and as a good British Royal Navy officer, he had his own ambitions. However, due to the Royal Navy's emphasis on seniority, and the abundance of officers with more seniority than him, his dream of commanding a higher-ranking fleet for twenty years in the rank of colonel never came true.

However, as the cannon fire of the Battle of Dunkerk ceased, Nicholson's fortunes took a turning point.

The Germans cleared the Royal Navy commander of all obstacles in his way with large-caliber train guns, and his formidable rivals had either sunk deep into the Channel with the massive ships or into the Germans' well-equipped prisoner of war camps.

Colonel Nicholson found himself one of the few remaining senior commanders in the Royal Navy overnight. In particular, he also has a very rich experience in operational command, which makes him the hottest figure in the British Admiralty.

A week after the Battle of Dunkelke, Nicholson received his first promotion to Commodore 2nd Class in the Royal Navy.

He finally fulfilled his dream, leading the H Flotilla of two light cruisers in the North Atlantic in search of German camouflaged assault ships. Although it was only two light cruisers, it was already very satisfying for Nicholson.

Unexpectedly, after two combat patrols, he received an order for a second promotion from the Admiralty.

Commodore First Class of the Royal Navy, Nicholson finally bid farewell to the ranks of colonels and stepped into the door of generals, and became one of the fastest-promoted officers in the Royal Navy.

Becoming an admiral meant that he began to work his way up the ranks of the Navy's senior leadership and was given the opportunity to become a core member of the Royal Navy.

In the eyes of others, the 54-year-old brigadier general is now at the peak of his physical strength and intelligence, and his future is really limitless.

Commodore Nicholson now stood on the broad bow deck of the HMS York, a British Royal Navy heavy cruiser, looking triumphantly at his majestic fleet, at least in his eyes.

Four light and heavy cruisers, five destroyers, although not very powerful, but also a force to be reckoned with.

At his feet was the flagship of the fleet, the USS York, a heavy cruiser with a displacement of over 10,000 guns, with six 203 mm cannons and a top speed of more than 30 knots.

On the left flank of the York was the Zealous-class light cruiser Jade, built at the end of World War I with an astonishing speed for its time.

Thirty-one is a very good result even now. This old ship, with seven 150 mm guns, still has considerable combat effectiveness and vitality due to the careful maintenance of the sailors.

On the right flank of the "York" was the light cruiser "Orion". Two weeks ago, this "Leander"-class light patrol was part of the Mediterranean Fleet. With eight 150-mm guns, the overall performance can only be said to be remarkable.

Behind the "York" was the light cruiser "Sheffield", the second capital ship of this fleet.

The "Southampton" class light cruiser is a very good warship of the first class design, with ferocious firepower, ideal speed, balanced protection, and everything is almost perfect.

Its composite index is even higher than that of the flagship "York", and if it were not for the fact that she was a light cruiser and did not have the flagship facilities of the detachment, Nicholson would not have hesitated to choose the "Sheffield" as the flagship of the fleet.

Behind the Sheffield are two high-speed ocean-going freighters, keeping a distance from each other and following closely behind the Sheffield, reminiscent of the ladies of the court.

On the left is the Scottish Jewel, a large cargo ship of 7,500 tons. The black hull towers over a beautiful white bridge and two conspicuous loading cranes.

The other is the fleet supply vessel "Pink Bird", which is a converted 4,000-ton ocean-going tanker, because of her shallow draft, so although her actual tonnage is much smaller than that of the "Scottish Jewel", it looks about the same size as the former.

Four cruisers and two ocean-going freighters lined up in a box formation, each maintaining a distance of seven hundred yards.

Guarding the outer line of the fleet was a circle of five destroyers.

Three D-class destroyers, "Defender", "Grace", "Pleasant" guarded the front of the fleet, while two V-class high-speed air defense destroyers acted as the rearguard of the fleet.

Nicholson looked at this fleet and felt extremely proud, although this fleet was not the most powerful, but it was definitely one of the most elite of all the fleets of the British Royal Navy today, and he was full of confidence in completing this important mission.

Indeed, he did not have the slightest doubt that he would be able to complete the task, and it seemed to him that there was no suspense.

These four cruisers alone were enough to withstand the attack of a dozen German camouflaged assault ships. Not to mention whether the Germans now have so many camouflaged raid ships operating at sea, and if they do, those raid ships will definitely not have the courage to attack their own fleet, unless the German captain is a suicidal madman.

And the route he sailed was a secret route carefully selected by the Admiralty, far from those ordinary merchant shipping routes. Although this route is much farther than those of the merchant ships in terms of overall distance, it also means that it is also far away from the threat of submarines.

German submarines have now become Britain's number one enemy, and it is a pity that the navy is now extremely short of long-range escort patrol ships, so Britain's precious overseas routes can only be opened naked in front of these fierce German submarine captains.

After the Battle of Dunkelke, the German submarines suddenly became unusually arrogant, and they began to swarm like wolves to pounce on the British convoy.

The countless use of German submarines proved that the old escort ships that had not been modified were just a pile of pretentious waste in front of them.

They often sneak up on the armed convoy in the dark of night, easily killing the old convoys in that flotilla, and then sneaking into the center of the flotilla to slaughter the unarmed merchant ships.

And the losses of those cargo ships that sail alone on the route are even more incalculable.

Britain's maritime transport was in fact semi-paralyzed, and the tonnage of ships lost was on a straight rise.

But the British Royal Navy was helpless about it. The heavy loss of the transport fleet led to a lack of supplies at home in the UK, and the lack of supplies led to the inability of the Navy to transform and manufacture escort ships that could effectively counter submarines, which became a vicious circle.

If a solution cannot be found in a short period of time, the British sea transport line may completely collapse, which is absolutely devastating for the UK.

If the Germans succeeded in cutting Britain off from abroad, it would only be a matter of time before Britain collapsed.

The German submarines were now able to wipe out almost any target they could find, and although the Royal Navy fought back, to little avail.

Although the newspapers kept running about how many German submarines the Royal Navy had sunk, Nicholson knew exactly how much water was in these reports.

Because as far as he knew, only two German submarines had been sunk with evidence of their sunk, and the others were only the self-proclaimed results of the various patrol captains.

And just a week before his departure, an incident occurred that caused the Royal Navy to lose face.

A German ocean-going submarine surfaced in broad daylight in the anti-submarine zone designated by the British Royal Navy and engaged in an artillery battle with a lightly armed escort ship.

What made Nicholson even more depressed was that the submarine actually relied on its superiority in artillery caliber to win.

That wasn't enough, the captain of the submarine might have been determined to slap the Royal Navy in the face, which was already faceless.

After sinking the armed ocean-going anti-submarine trawler, he even commanded the submarine to float on the surface in such a big way, using the submarine's sluggish speed of seventeen knots to catch up with the merchant fleet that was even more sluggish than her, and then used torpedoes and artillery to kill half of the ships of the fleet like targets.

This is a shame that has never been seen since the establishment of the British Royal Navy, and the commander of the Royal Navy's offshore patrol fleet was so angry that he almost burst his blood vessels on the spot, and Churchill kicked him back to his hometown. That evening Churchill gave the order to the Secretary of the Navy to the beginning of the "continuation" operation.

As the commander of the operation, Nicholson was not informed of the nature of the secret operation until the day before his departure.

Only then did he realize the weight of the burden on his shoulders, because this action was actually related to the national fortunes of the British Empire.

The destruction of British transport lines by German submarines and the growing scarcity of domestic resources caused the British Cabinet to be deeply concerned about the Reich's ability to withstand a future German invasion, and the British Cabinet developed a national contingency plan.

Once Germany invades the British mainland and the British resistance fails, the British cabinet will be transferred to Canada along with the royal family.

There they would establish a British Empire-in-exile government, and then lead all the Commonwealth and colonial governments in the fight against Germany until Britain won the final victory.

They had no doubt that the British Empire would be victorious, and Nicholson shared the same view.

But the operation of a country and a government needs a lot of money to back it up, especially in war, even the smallest combat power needs to be supported by money.

In order to ensure the normal operation of the British government in exile and to continue the fight against Germany, the British cabinet decided to transfer most of the domestic funds to Canada.

If the German invasion was successful, Britain's gold reserves would have been plundered, and the world's hardest pound would have turned into a pile of waste paper.

So the money that a government-in-exile can use must be something harder than money.

As a result, the British cabinet decided to ship most of the gold from the British national reserve to Canada, and in addition to that gold, there was also a large amount of royal jewelry, antiques, works of art and hundreds of millions of foreign securities that needed to be transferred.

The British Cabinet decided to send these supplies to Canada in batches, and the entire delivery plan was codenamed "Crusaders".

Before Nicholson took the order, Britain had already launched several transport operations, but all of them were small-scale, small deliveries as a temptation.

The results were mixed, with half of the supplies being sent to the bottom by German submarines on the way, while the other half reached the Canadian port of Halifax safely.

After several exploratory transports, the British Admiralty finally determined that the present route was safe, for German submarines were attracted to ordinary transport routes, and not a single sign of a German submarine presence had been found in the waters through which it passed.

Thus began the last, and largest, and most critical of the "Crusades" program, which the British Admiralty gave the operation the code name "Continuation".

Nicholson was a little flattered that he had been given such an important mission, and he felt a little proud.

He was confident in the completion of the operation, because with such a well-planned plan by the British Admiralty, it was impossible to fail in any case.

The only fly in the ointment that made him feel was that the strength of the fleet was a little weaker this time, and if there was a battleship in charge, it would be perfect.

Of course, Nicholson knew it was just wishful thinking. These ships were already the limit of what the Royal Navy could draw, after all, the British mainland was still under the threat of the Germans.

"Captain, see Sood Island."

The lookout shouted loudly from the bridge.

Nicholson and the captain quickly turned around and looked in the direction of the ship's bow, only to see a small black dot faintly emerging on the horizon in the distance.

"It's Sood Island, and we've finally arrived safely at our first stop, Your Excellency Commander."

Wilson put down the binoculars in his hand and said to Nicholson with a smile.

"Yes, Captain Wilson. Hopefully we will have the same smooth journey in the future. ”

"I hope so, Commander."

The naval fleet, laden with treasures, sailed slowly toward the distant islands, and no one knew what was about to befall them.