Heavy snow fell again on New Year's Day, making Randolph's trip to the United States difficult from the start. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Twelve-foot snowfall clogged Kent's main roads, and temperatures dropped to minus 20 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 degrees Celsius). More than 1 foot of snow fell in an hour on Folkestone, and some small villages were buried entirely under a thick layer of snow, leaking only chimneys and roofs. The people in the house will be completely cut off, and unless they can dig it out themselves, they will have to stay at home for a week or two and wait for the snow to melt.

Churchill's Chateaville estate certainly wouldn't be buried in the snow, but Randolph would have been foolish in time to get to Southampton Docks. Fortunately, he was not the only one who had encountered this situation, and most of the traffic in Britain was paralyzed.

Although all of this weather-related news will be blocked by the Bureau of Publication and Censorship, and it will not be available in the media until 15 days later. But Randolph and Churchill didn't need to go through these open sources of information to know how much the snow had affected Britain's traffic.

According to a report from the military's meteorological service, most of the UK's rivers and coastlines are frozen. The River Thames is frozen for eight miles between Teddington and Sunbury, and the ice is still spreading towards the Humber and Mersey rivers. The Grand Canal from London to Birmingham froze, the West Bank Railway route to Scotland was cut off by heavy snowfall, and even the ports of Folkestone and Southampton were forced to suspend sailings due to ice at the docks.

In a word, the waterways of the British mainland are largely paralyzed, and roads and railways are not much better. In this case, perhaps ice skating along a frozen river is the quickest way to get around.

Fortunately, it was not only the UK that was affected by this super cold air, but the whole of Europe was shivering in the snow and ice. The Danube in Germany and Hungary was also largely frozen, and more than 1,200 ships were frozen in the ice.

Temperatures in Switzerland have dropped to their lowest levels since 1920, Porto and Prague have seen their heaviest snowfall in 40 years, and even the traditionally warm southern part of Spain has seen its first snowfall since 1800.

Farther north, on the border between Norway and Sweden, mercury is frozen in thermometers. Between the islands of the Baltic Sea, ships can only move forward by icebreakers. Mines laid by the Germans near the Gulf of Heregoland were detonated by ice floes, and a German ship sank near Iceland when it hit an iceberg.

Temperatures on the Soviet-Finnish war front even dropped to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit (-38 degrees Celsius), and nearly 1,000 Soviet Red Army soldiers froze to death due to exposure. Many years later, this cold winter was firmly remembered by Europeans as one of the most icy memories of the war years.

It wasn't until 3 days later that Randolph embarked on his journey to the United States. Although in the age of ocean racing, high-speed cruise ships only take three to four days to travel between the two sides of the Atlantic. However, the HX-44 squadron to the Americas had a large number of low-speed merchant ships (to deliver supplies to Canada), plus they had to make a detour to the north in order to avoid German submarines and mines, and the whole journey took more than 20 days.

Fortunately, Randolph was prepared in advance and put a copy of Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power on History" in his suitcase. During his long journey, he could pass the time by studying the writings of the founder of the U.S. Navy's development strategy.

The first two days of the journey were peaceful, and Randolph spent most of his time reading in his cabin, except for a morning and evening walk on the deck and chatting with the captain. As an "old sailor" who served on a Navy cruiser, he had long been accustomed to such days of adrift on the sea.

Soon, the HX-44 formation entered the danger zone 800 nautical miles northwest of Ireland. This is where German submarines and oceanic assault ships are most frequented. But now, Randolph's biggest threat comes from the ice floes on the sea.

Due to the weather, the North Atlantic's route near the Arctic Circle is already covered with ice floe, and there are moving icebergs from time to time. Not long ago, a number of ships sank in the area after hitting an iceberg. The commander of the formation, Lieutenant Commander Wavell, arranged for the destroyer "Exmouth" to explore the way ahead, carefully leading the entire formation through the ice floe area.

But the accident happened anyway. Late one night, while Randolph was asleep, suddenly a rapid bell rang throughout the ship. Randolph, who was awakened, immediately reacted, this is to prevent the impact alarm!

Randolph was about to get up when he fell back into bed with a violent shaking. Then a screeching sound of metal was heard, and the entire cabin was plunged into darkness. Randolph fumbled to put on his life jacket and staggered to the bridge.

Thankfully, the Gleaner wasn't a big problem, just a slight scrape with other vessels, and the damage crew quickly brought the situation under control.

But the freighter "Burning Beaver", which was not far to their left, was not in a hurry. The old cargo ship, which belongs to the Canadian Pacific Company, first crashed into an iceberg on the port side, then collided with the supply ship Antelope, which was unable to dodge, and is now sinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The entire rescue operation lasted until the afternoon of the next day. The Burning Beaver sank to the bottom of the sea at dawn, and Lieutenant Commander Wavell spent all his time rescuing the Antelope. There was no way, who let this supply ship belong to the British Royal Navy, and Lieutenant Commander Wavell did not want to be questioned by the Commission of Inquiry for abandoning it so easily.

Eventually, the Antelope was able to repair its damaged power facilities, but its speed dropped to less than 14 knots, which greatly slowed down the speed of the entire formation.

Soon. Lieutenant Colonel Wavell's decision to insist that the "Antelope" act together with the formation led to serious consequences.

Because too much time was wasted on emergency repairs, the HX-44 formation, which had stayed on the surface of the sea for too long, was trapped by the ice floes that followed the ocean current south. The destroyer "Exmouth" tried to find a channel for the formation, but it was ineffective, and three more freighters were damaged by the impact of ice floe.

At this time, it was too late for Lieutenant Colonel Wavell to regret it, and the entire HX-44 formation was in a dilemma. Now, if a German submarine spotted them, it was able to send them all to the bottom of the sea as easily as a target.

Fortunately, in the end, God did not abandon these Brits. The first to spot the HX-44 formation was not a German submarine, but a passing Danish merchant fleet. The kind-hearted Danes also helped them carve out a shipping lane with their own icebreaker.

This Danish merchant fleet belonged to Maersk Line, and it was Maersk Jr. (Maersk Muller) who was sent to the United States by his father to integrate the company's operations in the United States.