"All the main guns fired a salvo at the port target after 2 minutes! The bearing is 7 degrees east of the south, and the distance is 4300 yards! ”

As the firing order was issued, the five main turrets on the German battleship "Elector" slowly rotated, and after a short adjustment of the thick barrels, the guns were all aimed at the American freighter "Mrs. Smith".

Inside the massive turret, German sailors stuffed heavy shells and ****** into the chambers, and everything was going on quickly and in order. The gunner commanded his gunner to adjust the firing elements and conduct a visual inspection through the observation port.

For the officers and men of the German Navy aboard the "Elector", this was a rare opportunity for live-fire exercises.

At this time, Wright, the captain of the "Mrs. Smith", sat on a comfortable bed in despair, and the American sailors next to him huddled by the porthole to watch something.

This is not the cabin of the "Madame Smith", but the "five-star hotel" specially prepared for them by the German Navy cruiser "Flenburg", which not only has enough beds, but also has toilets and bathing equipment.

But Wright and his eighty-nine sailors did not feel at home at all, at least until they were deported to the United States.

The two minutes passed quickly, and the alarm in the turret of the "Elector" began to sound, which signaled that the salvo of the battleship was about to begin, and all the German sailors were waiting intently.

Bang......

The huge force of the naval guns made the huge hull of the "Elector" tremble, and the fire spewed out from the muzzle of the guns illuminated a large area of the sea on the left side of the battleship, and the sea surface below the port side was sunken into large circular craters due to the strong air pressure.

The sound was like a thunderbolt from the blue, shocking Americans' eardrums and hearts.

After the silence of their own captain, the other American sailors had no mood to resist at all, and all their personal belongings were allowed to be kept, and the only one who lost was probably the owner of the freighter. Now, they just looked out the porthole with the excitement, hoping that their freighter would waste a few more waves of shells from the Germans.

Unfortunately, the German Navy's precise gunnery frustrated their last wishes.

In just one salvo, the "Mrs. Smith" was enveloped in the flames of the explosion, and the huge hull of the 10,000-ton ship was torn apart at once, countless fragments burned and flew down on the surrounding sea, and the remnants of the ship sank rapidly in the fire.

It's an expensive fireworks display!

The freighter itself cost more than £1 million, and the cargo on board was even more expensive, so it can only be said that the ship's owner deserves to pay for his speculation, and the US government is beyond reproach for this, after all, their ship violated the neutrality law, and their citizens were not harmed.

At this time, the American sailors crowded around the portholes and watched with relish, while their captains were at a loss.

Wright's mind repeats the scene from an hour ago like a slideshow.

"Sir, we found a shipment of munitions in the hold!" A German sailor hurried up to the deck to report to the German officer.

Although he couldn't understand German, Wright's face turned white.

It was clear that those things could not hide from the Germans at all. For Wright, this is tantamount to being caught in bed.

The German officer gave the American captain a cold look, and without waiting for him to explain anything, followed the sailor towards the cabin.

Like a thief caught stealing, Wright followed the Germans with his head pulled and dejected, his mind full of thinking about how to defend himself.

Recently there have been a lot of pirates, crew self-defense weapons?

But there are too many of them!

Offered to the Irish Underground Resistance?

The Americans will not be so kind, and the Germans are not stupid!

Thinking about it, Wright had to comfort himself that the Germans would not do anything to the American ship, not to mention that there were nearly a hundred American citizens on board. At most, at most, I will lose the weapons smuggled this time, as long as I keep Qingshan, I am not afraid that I will not be able to earn it back next time.

There were ten large compartments below the deck of this large freighter, each containing piles of wheat.

On top of one of the compartments, German sailors peeled open the wheat on top, revealing rectangular wooden crates underneath.

Several wooden crates had been pried open, and bundles of new rifles, shiny bullets, and swarthy water-cooled heavy machine guns appeared in front of everyone.

Even the benefits of selling tobacco and alcohol are not as good as these murderous weapons, and Americans are naturally very aware of this.

Britain is not a traditional army power, and it is easy to recruit hundreds of thousands of recruits in a short period of time, but enough weapons are not available in British factories, although all arms factories produce cannons, guns and ammunition 24 hours a day.

"Usually a rifle can only be sold in the market for 70 pounds, and now the British army is bidding 200 pounds a rifle, so we will risk shipping these things to the British!" Wright confessed his mistake with unexpected speed, but he did not regard the German naval officers and men in front of him as police uncles in the Atlantic, he just had the mentality that a good man does not suffer the immediate loss.

The German officer glanced at him, but did not say anything to him, but instructed his own soldiers in German to inspect several other compartments and take notes.

Seeing the seriousness of the Germans, Wright felt that they just wanted to take all the weapons on the ship, so he took the initiative to confess: "Dear Mr. Officer, there are weapons in every compartment of this ship, and I am willing to leave these weapons to you, and then you will let my sailors and my ship leave, right?" ”

The German officer paid no attention to him this time, and still commanded his soldiers.

"Okay, okay, you guys take the weapons, and my ship and I go back to the United States, how about it?" Wright was no longer as arrogant as he was on deck, after all, whoever was strong in force here would speak.

After a while, the German officer turned to look at the clown, pointed to a pile of weapons and said:

"You, stand here!"

Wright hesitated, bewildered, and walked over to the pile of weapons.

The flash flickered, a puff of white smoke rose, and the German sailors took their cameras and gave the American captain and his smuggled weapons.

The world is always dominated by the strong, but the German Navy decided to keep their gentlemanly demeanor to the end. The evidence is conclusive, and there is no fear of the Americans denying it afterwards.

"You, come here! Sign this piece of paper! The German officer called Wright over again and handed him a document.

It was a document confessing that his freighter had hidden prohibited materials, Wright hesitated again, and finally obediently signed his name, he did not understand what these Germans were doing, but it was certainly not a good thing for him.

As he expected, the Germans put him and his men all on the German cruiser, and they took only a few samples of the weapons on the freighter.

Later, it was the scene of the "ceremonial flowers".

"It's over! Mr. Brown will definitely not let me go! Wright finally came to his senses, and he covered his face in frustration. Although he did not lose his life, and even treated him preferentially, he knew very well that he would not have a good life when he returned to the United States, and that the vicious shipowner would tear him to shreds.

The Germans paid no attention to the frustrated American captain, and the Hipper formation continued to search for their prey on the vast sea.

After daybreak, the two seaplanes carried by the "Frenburg" were successively hoisted to the water, which could greatly increase the search range of the fleet during the day.

As soon as the propeller began to spin, Ensign Schweier, the pilot of reconnaissance plane No. 1, yawned profusely, apparently disturbing his sleep from the previous bombardment. This 25-year-old man has a resounding name as the youngest, most handsome, and most formidable pilot of the 1st Raid Formation of the German Atlantic.

Although this title has not yet had time to be confirmed by the majority of German women, his four competitors - Ensign Schneider, the co-pilot of the No. 1 reconnaissance plane, the co-pilot of the No. 2 reconnaissance plane, and the only substitute pilot are all willing to bow down in front of Schwell's beer, so Schwell's victory in this title can be said to be expected.

Before the plane began to glide on the water, Schweller turned his head to look at the co-pilot Schneider, who seemed to be in good spirits today, and grinned after checking the plane's transmitter, showing a miserable rotten tooth.

Schwell shook his head, if it weren't for those yellowish and blackened teeth, Schneider would definitely have the qualifications to compete with him for the title of the most handsome pilot.

The No. 2 reconnaissance plane next to it also started with the roar of the engine, and the two pilots on it also waved enthusiastically to this side. It's a pity that they are all Bensan, and Shi Wei feels that his age advantage in front of them is still very obvious.

The plane slowly flew off the water, and Ensign Schweier sighed shallowly, he preferred the blue sky, but today's low clouds made the whole world look gray, and his mood was a little depressed.

Fortunately, in this weather, the blue-gray livery of the German Navy reconnaissance aircraft was not conspicuous.

Reconnaissance aircraft No. 1 searched to the northwest, and reconnaissance aircraft No. 2 searched to the southwest to the right. To the northwest was Iceland's direction, but Schweil's planes couldn't fly that far.

While the pilots were at work, Hippert and his generals were still enjoying a delicious breakfast in the senior officers' cafeteria of the Elector, and each of them was in a happy mood for this morning's harvest.

"Report to the commander, our reconnaissance planes have already taken off!" The officer's report on duty did not interrupt the mood of the crowd eating, but only added a new topic to them.

"What a brilliant idea to convert the aft deck of the cruiser to carry reconnaissance aircraft, and the field of view of our fleet has increased by hundreds of nautical miles at once!"

One of the colonels put down his knife and fork and began to speak, judging from the rest of the food in front of him, he did not eat too much, but his figure was very well-proportioned, which was also characteristic of naval officers and soldiers. Compared with the miserable body shape of some army generals, the admirals basically have nothing to do with the pot-bellied body.

Hipperer agrees, and he deliberately stops putting food in his mouth for a while, "Airplanes are a wonderful thing, and the Königsberg shipyard always surprises us!" ”

Half a month ago, the "Frenberg" in the Hipper's formation was refitted at the Königsberg shipyard.

"Let's hope those Americans will get used to our food! I think we will meet more American ships on this trip, these guys are always everywhere, wherever there is interest, they will be there! A colonel, who had just been cutting pancakes in earnest, also stopped to join the discussion.

When it comes to Americans, everyone is quite dismissive.

"I don't have any affection for Americans! They are nothing more than slaves to coins! ”

"Americans seem to be too loose, like barbarians who have not yet evolved!"

"They are the Navy who can barely see it, and the Army is simply garbage in the garbage!"

"I dare say that every American ship will smuggle some weapons, but it is their nature to make profits!"

"It doesn't matter, we have hundreds of beds for them, just waiting for them to come and stay!"

When the officer on duty walked into the dining room again, all the voices of condemnation and contempt ceased, and the officers seemed to realize that another prey had appeared.

"Reconnaissance Plane No. 2 reported that a cruise ship was spotted 25 nautical miles southwest with the British flag flying on it!" The report of the officer on duty confirmed the predictions of the crowd.

"All right, guys! This is the end of breakfast, let's go home! Hipper, wiping his lips with a napkin, walked out of the dining room first.

The officers also put down their utensils and left the room in turn.

Just half an hour later, the figure of the British cruise ship appeared in Hipper's telescope. This kind of cruise ship is the most headache for German submarines, although it flies the British flag, but it usually has some neutral passengers on it, and the German Admiralty requires submarine forces to attack cruise ships in strict accordance with the provisions of the "capture law", for the safety of passengers and crew, before sinking the ship to investigate, search and take precautions. It was unrealistic for submarines to intercept and search for such cruise ships full of passengers, so the German submarine forces in the Atlantic could only watch these cruise ships shuttle through the routes.

But all that will change with the arrival of the German Atlantic Raid Formation, which Hipper has the honor of setting for this precedent.

Unlike the Americans, the sailors on the British liner spotted from afar that the three ships had black vulture cross flags on their masts, which were even more terrifying than the skull pirate flags.

In fact, as early as the German plane painted with a white iron cross appeared overhead, Richard, the captain of the British cruise ship "Newfoundland", already sensed that something bad was about to happen. The 9,000-ton cruise ship is a regular shuttle ship between New York and Liverpool, and this time in addition to ordinary passengers, it also carries a special group of people and cargo on board.

Richard, who had served in the British Navy, was quick to report the presence of German aircraft in the area to the British mainland, but he did not change the ship's course due to the lack of clarity.

When the German fleet appeared, even the experienced Richard was a little overwhelmed, after all, there had been no German surface ships in this area, and he immediately ordered his sailors to report and ask for help from the British mainland again.

After measuring the speed of both sides, Richard decided to accept the Germans' request to stop the ship for inspection.

After discovering that the speed of the ship was beginning to slow down, another important figure on the ship appeared in front of Richard, and the major commander of the Canadian Volunteer asked menacingly:

"Mr. Captain, why did you slow down this ship, we should get out of here at full speed!"

"Mr. Major, I'm afraid you have also seen that there are three German battleships in front of us, one of which is a fast cruiser, with my ship there is no hope of escaping the Germans, and there are no British warships nearby that can confront those German battleships, so ......"

Before Richard could finish speaking, the Canadian Major interrupted him, "You're crazy! This ship could hold two whole battalions of Canadian volunteers and a large amount of ammunition, didn't you hand them all over to the Germans? ”

"But Major, I am more responsible for the 133 ordinary passengers and 78 sailors on board!" The gray-haired Richard explained calmly.

"Oh God! Then I had to order my soldiers to be ready for battle! The Major had a sad look on his face, and he and his soldiers were among the first unlucky men in the Canadian army to encounter the Germans on this route since the end of September.

"Major, that's two German battleships and a German cruiser! Are you and your soldiers going to fight them with rifles? Despite his perception that Canadians are inadequate, Richard did not laugh at him in the slightest.

The Major looked at Richard stunned, "Do you want my people to surrender to them?" ”

"Major, it's up to you to decide! And my duty is only to ensure the safety of this ship and its passengers! ”

The Newfoundland came to a halt at the surface of the sea and allowed the waves to gently shake its hull.

The German battleship formation was still divided into two parts, the "Elector" and "Frenberg" approached, and the "Oldenburg" was responsible for monitoring the sea from a distance.

Most of the ordinary passengers on the cruise ship were British and Americans, and the Americans were more like a group of spectators than the shivering British passengers hiding in the cabin, most of them stood on the deck and watched curiously at the approaching German battleship, and from time to time let out a sigh of admiration at the huge hull and majestic turret.

The Canadian major stood on the foredeck of the ship with a group of soldiers, all of whom carried their rifles on their backs, but most of them were still nervous when the large and small guns of the German battleship were all aimed at them.

"Commander, the cruise ship sent a signal that it had Canadian troops on it, but they are willing to negotiate with us!" Before the officer's report, Hipper had seen the soldiers on the ship, but he was not sure where the British colonial legion was.

"Let the 'Frenberg' send sailors on board to inspect and demand that those Canadian troops surrender to us, or we will sink that cruise ship!"

Soon, the German officer, who had previously boarded an American freighter for inspection, boarded the Newfoundland with his soldiers. This time, however, instead of having his soldier point his gun at the Canadian, he walked up to the major and saluted, and then spoke in his fluent English:

"German Naval Lieutenant Clemens!"

"Canadian Volunteer Major Garcia!"

"Mr. Major, according to our Imperial Proclamation of September 15, 1914, the waters of Great Britain and Ireland are belligerents, that is to say, they are lawful battlefields! As allies of the British army, you Canadian troops are enemies of our Germany, so on behalf of the German navy I ask you and your soldiers to make a choice, surrender to us or engage us at war? For the Canadian major in front of him, who was neither arrogant nor humble, Clemens did not have the same disgust as the Americans before him.

The Canadian Major straightened his chest, and there was no fear in his eyes, "Mr. Major, my soldiers and I do not intend to surrender to your country, but there are still many innocent passengers on this ship, I hope our battle will not harm the innocent!" ”

The German major was a little surprised, and he glanced at the other Canadian soldiers, whose chests were also straight, and their imposing presence was not inferior to the German sailors.

"But Mr. Major, you have no chance of winning a battle with our warships, and you can't even hurt our fur!"

"The outcome of the battle does not matter, the important thing is that me and my soldiers will not surrender to you!" The Canadians were adamant and repeated their decision.

"Well, Major! I'm going to talk to the captain of this ship too! After Clemens finished speaking, he gave a few more orders to a German sailor next to him, and the sailor immediately communicated with the German battleship through the flag.

After a while, Captain Richard came to the Germans.

Richard stared at the noble German officer in front of him, and Clemens looked at the calm British captain. Richard had not fought the Germans while still serving in the Navy, but the Germans had long been their greatest potential rival for the British Navy, and now that rival had finally appeared before him.

"German Naval Lieutenant Clemens!"

"Richard, captain of the British cruise ship Newfoundland!"

"Mr. Captain, your ship is carrying the armies of the belligerents in the war zone!" Clemens remained as aloof as ever.

"Yes, Mr. Major! According to the rules of neutrality, you can sink this ship without sacrificing the lives of innocent civilians! Richard replied frankly, but the German officer in front of him was not surprised.

"That Canadian major and his soldiers refuse to surrender to us, they will stay on this ship and fight us!"

"I'm very sorry about that! These Canadians are so dutiful! ”

"Then Mr. Captain, what people and cargo are on this ship, I hope you can answer truthfully!"

"The passengers included 133 civilians, 78 sailors, 752 Canadian soldiers and one British captain; The cargo includes the luggage of these civilians, two cars, and the weapons and equipment of the Canadian soldiers! ”

Major Clemens nodded, and the British captains maintained their chivalrous demeanor as always, and after that, he did not let his men go down to the cabin to inspect them, at least not until Vice Admiral Hippel made a decision.

Clemens glanced at the Canadian soldiers on the other side, still standing face to face with the German sailors with rifles on their backs, and unlike the imminent confrontation, the two sides seemed to be unanimous and the two armies had never fought each other, but this was war.

After a long while, Clemens finally received the order from Vice Admiral Hipper, and he first turned to Richard, "Mr. Captain, I am very sorry to inform you that we will temporarily detain the civilians and sailors on this ship, after which we will send them back to their respective countries. Now, I ask for your cooperation in transferring them to our warship, they can bring their own luggage, but I don't want to see anyone do anything irrational, in that case I can hardly guarantee their safety! ”

Richard nodded, and then summoned his sailors to begin informing and transferring the ship's passengers.

Clemens then walked up to the Canadian Major and gave a serious salute again, "Mr. Major, our commander has agreed that you will stay on this ship like a warrior and fight us, and he has asked me to convey his respect to you on his behalf!" Also, as a kind reminder, we recommend that you ask your soldiers for their opinions, and if they are willing to lay down their arms and surrender to us, we are willing to accept and guarantee their lives! ”

"Thank you for your kindness! I think my soldiers will be happy to uphold the honor of the Canadian Army! A smile appeared on the corner of the Canadian major's mouth, and in Clemens's opinion, this smile was so bright, beautiful before the end of his life.

With the help of British sailors, German sailors and Canadian volunteers, all the ordinary passengers carried their luggage and boarded the cruiser "Frenburg", and then the British sailors also cooperated to accept the seizure of the German Navy.

On the bridge of the "Elector", Vice Admiral Hipper silently watched this peculiar scene.

When Clemens was the last to evacuate the Newfoundland, he suddenly noticed that the British captain had not left there, and after a few seconds, he gave a military salute to the British captain and left the ship.

"Mr. Captain, have you already decided?" The Canadian major, who was standing on deck, smiled and asked the British captain next to him.

"Yes, I am honoured to stay with this ship, and even more honoured to be able to fight alongside our most loyal allies in the UK. By the way, I still have a good bottle of wine in my room, don't mind tasting it with me! ”

"It's an honor!"

As the distance from the Newfoundland grew farther and farther away, both Clemens and Hippert felt something strange in their hearts.

The Hipper's formation lined up 4,000 yards from the British cruise ship and saw off the "Newfoundland" with the sound of neat cannons.

In this cannon-like salute, the German sailors silently saluted these worthy opponents.

In this cannon-like salute, English sailors and ordinary passengers from various countries wept for the knights.

In the midst of this cannon-like salute, the British captain and the Canadian major raised their wine glasses.

War is not all about bloody killings and dirty intrigues, knights use their spirit to add a brilliant color to the war.