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

At that time, the British Empire was still the world's largest naval power, while the German navy was cautiously on the defensive. The naval battle that broke out in the Hurgoland Bay was the first contest between British and German surface ships after the outbreak of the war, and it was also the first and last victory of the British in a naval battle in the war. At that time, Zeber participated in the fierce naval battle as a lieutenant commander of the German Navy commanding an old light cruiser called "Ariadne": 6 light cruisers and 19 destroyers of the Germans had to face the sudden appearance of a British ambush fleet of 5 battle cruisers, 8 light cruisers and 33 destroyers before the main fleet arrived. There was no suspense in the course of the battle, the tragic battle ended in the victory of the British unscathed, but the Germans lost 3 light cruisers, including the "Ariadne", and 1 destroyer.

Time has passed, and Commodore Zeber is standing in the command room of Germany's most powerful battle cruiser "De Friegel", and he will lead the German Navy's 2nd detachment to participate in the hunt for the new British cruiser "Churchill".

As the sister ship of the "Lützov", the "D-Friinger" was commissioned in September 1914, and the first large-scale refit was carried out in October 1915, the displacement was increased to 28,000 tons, the 8 twin-mounted 305-mm main guns remained unchanged, the head and tail torpedo tubes were canceled, the original oil-coal mixed combustion power was changed to full fuel power, and the speed was increased to 28 knots.

On the morning of the second day of departure from Pascalvlo, Zeber's fleet had sailed 20 degrees west longitude, more than 300 nautical miles south of Iceland. It will not be long before the German naval outposts in the Atlantic will be moved forward to Iceland, after which the time for German ships to enter the Atlantic hinterland will be reduced by at least one day.

"General, a secret message from Berlin!"

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

Zeber did not take the telegram. Instead, he said one word in a chic manner:

"Read!"

"Yes! According to the ground intelligence obtained this morning, a Canadian tugboat and a British destroyer left the port of St. John's in eastern Canada and entered the Atlantic, the specific intention is unknown, it may be that the "Churchill" is malfunctioning, or it may be to tow the trophies! But so far there have been no reports of attacks on German merchant ships! ”

After listening to the telegram, Zeber walked to the porthole with his hands behind his back, from which he could see the undulating sea. There was also the accompanying light cruiser "Boum", which was a 3,000-ton Lipe-class light cruiser, equipped with 4 Krupp 40 times diameter 152 mm naval guns and 6 105 mm rapid-fire guns, which was also the most common firepower configuration of German light cruisers. The armor protection of this cruiser is not strong, the side and the conning tower are 100 mm armor, and the speed can reach up to 25 knots, but the endurance is only 4200 nautical miles, so 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 was not so satisfactory, it was much better than the old cruiser that Zeber was captain at the outbreak of war. And. The German Navy, after the end of the war, had already asked several major military shipyards to design and build an escort cruiser suitable for ocean-going voyages. With a tonnage of between 6000 and 9000, it was armed with 152-mm cannons and water reconnaissance aircraft to protect the increasingly busy German commercial routes overseas. Right now. The cruisers were undergoing final installation work on the slipway, and by early 1917 it was expected that a new batch of escort cruisers would replace the slightly older light cruisers.

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

The 11,000-ton cargo ship, named "Lucky Star", belonged to the German Bremen shipping company, departed from the German port of Bremerhaven one week ago, and was loaded with 6,000 tons of high-quality cement, 500 machine tools and 800 cases of French wine, all of which were ordered by an import and export company in New York, USA, with an order price of 1.9 million German marks. That's $550,000.

After a thorough inspection of the cabins, British sailors armed with rifles gathered 35 crew members, including the captain, onto the deck. Afterwards, an officer dressed in the uniform of a British Navy major announced to them in German that the German freighter had been confiscated by the British Empire Navy and that the cargo on board belonged to the British Empire with immediate effect. Under international law, the crew here will be allowed to leave in lifeboats, and whether they live or die thereafter has nothing to do with the British Empire.

"Sir, it's at least 1,000 nautical miles from the coast! We simply can't hold on to the shore, can we be allowed to send a distress telegram? "The German captain made a request that seemed very reasonable, in fact. Had it not been for the failure of the ship's transmitters, they would have sent a report home long before the British captured them. At first, the captain and his crew planned to scare the British cruiser away with four 105-mm guns on the ship, but before the other side could enter their own firing range, the whistling shells set off an 8-meter-high column of water on the sea not far from the "Neptune". However, as qualified German citizens, they were brave enough to destroy the ship's boilers and engine equipment before the British boarded the ship, so that the British could not sail it to Canada until it was repaired.

Obviously, the British ** official became a little hysterical for this reason:

"Dream! His Majesty is extremely forgiving in letting you go alive, and we will not send a report to the German Navy on your behalf to let you go alive, so that they may come here to attack us! ”

With 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, so many of us need at least 4 boats and enough fresh water and food, otherwise, you are indirectly murdering us!"

"Then you can go to the British Imperial Court and sue me!" After smiling disdainfully, the major left without looking back.

After only 10 minutes, the poor German crew were forced to leave the Lucky Star by cramming into two modest lifeboats, and it was clear that the ship's name did not bring them real good luck.

Leaving 20 sailors on board the German freighter to be answered, the "Churchill" quickly headed for the next target.

After three days at sea, the German crew of the Lucky Star were rescued by a passing Norwegian freighter. Although the first telegram of the attack was sent to China, the German Navy had lost the opportunity to discover the trace of the "Churchill" in the first place.

"3 days!" Brigadier Zeber pondered over the charts that in three days his opponent could go to many places, whether it was the Portuguese Azores, the Caribbean, or the possibility of returning to Canadian ports. In short, there is a lot of room for imagination and a lot of troubles.

"Report, a telegram has been sent from the mainland, because of the weather, our reconnaissance airship has returned, and I am afraid that it will not be possible to conduct an aerial search of the nearby waters in the next three days!"

After listening to his subordinates' reports, Zeber looked up at the porthole, the sea was covered with dark clouds, the sky was frighteningly dark, and it seemed that there would be a storm soon.

"How far is it from the Azores?" Zeber asked his navigator about it.

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

Zeber immediately ordered: "The fleet is moving forward at full speed, and at the same time send a message to Berlin that we will enter Angra Herosmosmo in Terceira to take shelter from the rain!" ”

Soon, the task force, consisting of 1 battle cruiser, 3 light cruisers, 1 seaplane carrier and 1 supply ship, accelerated to a maximum speed of 16 knots, although it took at least 7 hours for them to reach the Azores. However, after four hours, the sea surface wind reached 10 in a short time, and the originally calm sea became choppy, and even the "De Fleeter", which had a displacement of 3 tons, rose and fell in the big waves, and the huge waves continued to wash the deck of the battleship, and the sailors had already entered the cabin to take shelter from the wind, and several other warships were even more bumpy. The 5,100-ton seaplane carrier "Luna" was built to the standards of warships, and it is not too difficult to fight against this kind of wind and waves, but the 10 "Exocet DV" seaplanes on it are probably going to fall apart. The supply ship "Glenberg" was converted from an 8,000-ton ocean-going freighter, and after the addition of oil storage tanks, medical cabins, and special offshore oil pipelines and gondolas, its seamanship performance was not improved, and its speed gradually dropped to 11 knots in the wind and waves, seriously dragging down the fleet.

But that's not the worst, and the seasoned Zeber knows that an even bigger storm is coming soon.

At the same time, the British Navy's Commodore Fox and his "Churchill" were also tossed in the wind and waves, and although the new ship enhanced its seaworthiness, the waves under the 10-level gale were a great test for any ship. After studying the charts for a long time, Brigadier General Fox finally decided:

"To the Azores!"