In the early morning, the sea surface was slightly less windy and waves, and the fog seemed to be covered by layers of veils in front of the eyes, and it was difficult to see the faces of others after a few meters, and the officers on the bridge seemed to be standing on an isolated island of steel, but the sound was not disturbed by the fog, and the rumbling roar of the engines and the orders of the changing of the guard could be clearly heard in the ears, and then the loud sound of leather boots clattering - all according to the standards of the British Royal Navy, and above the lonely bridge, the fluttering St. George's flag was hidden in the fog. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Sir, according to the bearing calculation, we have reached the third waypoint, have we adjusted the course as planned?" The speaker was a young naval non-commissioned officer, wearing a large blue cap, a white shirt, a black tie and a double-breasted dark blue short-placket jacket, a pair of narrow dark blue trousers and lace-up black leather shoes, the armband showed that he was a candidate officer, and the spotless attire also made him look energetic.

The non-commissioned officer was facing a lieutenant commander of the Navy, who was at least over sixty years old based on his appearance and skin, but his body still looked very strong. He did not immediately answer the non-commissioned officer's request, but frowned hesitantly and muttered, "This fog is really too big!" ”

Looking around from the bridge at this time, there was no sign of other ships at all, but in fact the battleship was the leader of a fleet, followed by four freighters and a destroyer. Because the route of this fleet is located in the northern waters of high latitudes, the British Admiralty gave it a very vivid code name: the reindeer sleigh team.

There is not only one "reindeer sledding team" between Narvik, Norway and northern Britannica. After Jutland and the two naval battles of Flanders, in order to repair damaged ships and build new ships, the British shipbuilding industry's demand for steel increased greatly, but at the same time, ships sailing from the British African colonies to Britain were frequently attacked by German submarines in the North Atlantic, and the arrival of "Blucher" and "Gloudenz" pushed Germany's maritime war in the North Atlantic to a climax, which brought not only mental and psychological panic to the British, but also Britain's prosperous industry was extremely dependent on the import of raw materials. Pre-war reserves were simply unable to cope with the continued sharp decline in shipping volumes, and the importance of high-quality ore from northern Sweden, which already accounted for a certain proportion of British imports, was now highlighted.

Since the construction of the railway line from Stockholm in Sweden to Narvik in Norway, the Port of Narvik has become a major export port for Swedish iron ore. British cargo ships laden with iron ore sailed from Narvik across the Norwegian Sea to the northern ports of Britain, a journey of more than 1,000 nautical miles. Although the German Navy had the initiative in the North Sea, German surface ships rarely sailed to the northern seas, and submarines mostly went to the North Atlantic, and in September and October, the losses of British ships on the northern routes were much smaller than those on the major routes in the North Atlantic.

"The sound of the whistle is likely to cause us unnecessary trouble, sir, and we will simply keep on our current course and wait until the fog has cleared before adjusting, which will only add a little more to the voyage, and arrive at the port of Aberdeen an hour or two later at most. What do you see? "An ensign officer on the bridge made a proposal to the captain, Lieutenant Commander Longman.

If the fleet were to change course in the fog, it would either use a whistle or radio communication, either of which could attract German ships in the nearby seas.

Unlike the North Sea, which has many sandbars and shoals, the Norwegian Sea has an average depth of more than 1,700 meters, and there is almost no possibility of stranding except in the coastal area, and only the northernmost sea area has large areas of ice floe during this season, so there is no technical risk of temporarily changing course. The elderly Captain Longman nodded: "Let's do it!" ”

The young non-commissioned officer then brought the captain's decision to the first mate who was at the helm in the command tower and to the navigator in the chart room, and at this time, neither Lieutenant Commander Longman, nor the second lieutenant officer who made the suggestion, nor the young non-commissioned officer, knew the danger to which the fleet was confronted—whether they turned or not, it would inevitably break into the area of activity of a German fleet, and it would be far larger than the British could imagine!

Only half an hour after the flotilla had sailed past the third waypoint, the British sailors on the mast lookout saw a dark object on the surface of the sea that appeared to be a reef, and at first he thought it was a German submarine in a floating state, and hurriedly reported the situation to the officer on the bridge. Moments later, Lieutenant Colonel Longman and his officers saw the outlines of the "reefs" through the binoculars, and were shocked: the nearby sea was full of large torpedo boats of the German Navy, they were not sleeping beasts, but the roar of each other's engines interfered with their awareness, so that they did not notice the sudden appearance of prey nearby, but no one could guarantee that they would not wake up in the next second, baring their sharp fangs and claws, and pounce on the "reindeer sleigh team" and tear it to pieces.

Worse still, Lieutenant Commander Longman was unable to use the usual flags or light signals to let the cargo ships and destroyers behind him know what was going on, and he had no time to think about it, so he ordered the officers to send a battle alert to the whole ship by verbal transmission, and at the same time sent a telegram to the British Admiralty and the rest of the fleet, telling all the ships carrying ore to turn around and return to Narvik - they were belligerents, but they were not warships, and they could hide in neutral ports to avoid attacks without time constraints.

Immediately afterwards, Captain Longman made a bold and dangerous decision: to take the initiative to attack the German ships here with his own warships!

The battleship to which the bridge belonged was the Edgar-class protective cruiser "Hawak", which had long been obsolete and had the reputation of "world cruiser". It appeared at the height of the British Empire's world domination, designed and built to meet the needs of the British Navy's global deployment of military power, with relatively low cost, excellent navigation performance, and uncompromised combat power. It has a displacement of 7,350 tons, a maximum speed of 20 knots under strong pressure ventilation, a cruising range of 10,000 nautical miles at 10 knots, and is equipped with two 32 times the diameter of the 234 mm main gun, 10 40 times the diameter of the 152 mm secondary guns, and several small-caliber rapid-fire guns. This class of protective cruisers belonged to the same era as the victoria-Louise-class protective cruisers of the German Navy (the five that were converted into high-speed torpedo boat carriers), but was one rank higher than the latter. In the 90s of the 19th century, the German Navy was not qualified to be a match for the British Navy, but now it has only been 20 years since the Edgar-class protective cruisers were completed and put into service.

When Captain Longman gave the order to enter combat mode, most of the officers and men of the "Hawak" were already at their posts, and they were able to fire at local ships by simply loading the cannons with shells. Since there were seven or eight large German torpedo boats in sight, and it would take time to determine the distance and bearing, Captain Longman decided to let the gunners fire freely and adjust according to the progress of the battle, but just as he was about to shout the order to "fire", he was stunned by the sudden appearance of a hazy black shadow on the sea in front of him.

"It's a German battleship!"

A sharp-eyed British officer screamed softly.

Although Captain Longman is a mid-ranking officer commanding an old ship that is nearing retirement, he served in the Navy's staff organization in his prime and knows what kind of deployment the two sides will make in what kind of naval warfare situation. At this time, the German battleships would never come out alone, let alone in the Norwegian Sea, thousands of kilometers from the European continent!

The British Navy never expected an escort force of an old protective cruiser and an old destroyer to repel a wolf-like hunter like the Blucher, but at least to deal with the German submarines that surfaced and the German raiders converted from merchant ships. However, it was not without chance to meet the German battleships head-on, and the Edgar-class protective cruisers, which were inferior by N grades. A popular element of the era, it was equipped with four 18-inch underwater torpedo tubes, giving it the opportunity to challenge the enemy's capital ships.

Captain Longman immediately changed his mind about using naval guns to attack the German large torpedo boats first, and he asked the communications officer to send a telegram to the Admiralty informing them that the German capital ship had appeared in the waters of the southern Norwegian Sea, and then gave a new order to the fighters on board: load all torpedo tubes as fast as possible!

However, the radio waves emitted earlier were like droplets of blood seeping into the seawater, which had already attracted the attention of the surrounding group of hunting sharks, and the flashing points of light were the signals of their mutual communication. Before Lieutenant Colonel Longman's sailors finished reloading the torpedoes, the terrible sound of artillery suddenly broke the deserted atmosphere of this remote sea, and the smell of killing instantly diffused.

Since the enemy ship had opened fire, Lieutenant Commander Longman had no choice but to give the order to return fire. Although they knew that their battleship was in a very bad situation, the officers and men on the ship carried out the order fearlessly, and the starboard naval guns blew up the nearest large German torpedo boat in a blink of an eye, but Lieutenant Commander Longman only had that hazy black shadow in his eyes, judging from its sideways outline, it was a big guy of more than 20,000 tons, and if he could hit it hard with a torpedo, he would have no regrets about his end-of-the-end naval career.

Boom ......

The bow gun of the "Hawak" made a deafening roar for the second time, and in an instant, there was a flash of light in front of it, and the officer in charge of observing the hit immediately said in a tone that was raised one degree: "It seems to have hit!" ”

The light and flame of the shell explosion and the black smoke produced by it made the British officers and men on the "Havak" full of expectations, but the light and flame of the light and flame of the 234 mm caliber were aimed at the hazy black shadow of the huge body, and the possibility of knocking the tiger out of the black smoke was very small, but the light and flame were fleeting, and the smoke showed no sign of rapid increase, and Lieutenant Colonel Longman suddenly felt that the shell just now was like a stick on the tiger's head, and the possibility of knocking the tiger out was very small, and it was inevitable to provoke fierce retaliation.

(End of chapter)