On the west coast of New York, the United States, 12 large and small armed ships, the largest is an ocean-going light cruiser, a cutting-edge warship with a full displacement of more than 5,200 tons, and the smallest is a destroyer of 2,300 tons.

Such an aircraft carrier is a new thing born after the First World War, although it is said that Germany has used unmistakable examples to prove the huge role of airships, but the countries led by Britain and France still put a lot of energy into the aircraft, this escort aircraft carrier that can accommodate 16 seaplanes, is an obvious example, specially remodeled, enough to release and recover 16 aircraft, the detection range, and even the sea attack range has been greatly strengthened.

In addition to the 2 escort aircraft carriers, most of the remaining are destroyers, 8 of which were delivered by the United States, and they even paid about half of the seafarers, more than 36,000 tons of fleet, including 56 depth charge projectors, which is the confidence of the entire fleet, even if it encounters the German submarine formation, it can confront it head-on, and even gather and annihilate it.

It is precisely because of the strong protection ability of this escort fleet, this escort fleet, attracted a large number of cargo ships to come, from the beginning of the release of the news, there is an endless stream of cargo ships, a steady stream of comes, finally, when departing from New York, the final number is 78, more than 10,000 tons of cargo ships are full of 53, the rest, is also a quasi-ocean-going cargo ship, the entire fleet is a total of 680,000 tons of carrying a total of materials, carrying a large number of materials, not only 12 army divisions of materials. There are also some airships and food and other supplies, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the largest fleet since the start of the war in Europe.

It's a huge fleet. Escort can reduce submarine attacks, one or two submarines, may not be able to produce much threat to the escort formation, but the German submarines are the main battle submarines that already have actual combat capabilities, and can even forcibly attack military ports and capital ships, they think that 12 ships can protect dozens of cargo ships, which is really naïve.

Start with the recruitment of cargo ships from the convoy fleet. The intelligence officers under the command of the German General Staff had already begun to investigate the fleet, and every day, there were professional intelligence officers who kept an eye on the harbor and carefully assessed the situation of the fleet, and when the huge fleet left New York, there was information about the fleet. It had already been transmitted to Germany by radio, across the vast Atlantic.

"What a big piece of fat!" I am afraid that the final conclusion of the General Staff and the Admiralty is that there is not a single capital ship. Just with a fleet of 12 escort ships of different sizes, they dared to ensure the safety of these cargo ships, and the supplies of the 12 armies. Part of it was the British armies of the colonies, and the British would be among the colonies and the native armies. 8 divisions of the army were formed, while the remaining 4 divisions were materiel. It was to help the French to transport, losing a third of the land in the north, and in the Mediterranean, it was suppressed and raided by Italy, and the French fleet was frantically transporting people and weapons from the colonies, which were provided by the British.

The blue Atlantic, a calm, but under the calm, is a bloody rain, on the channel, the 9 fastest reconnaissance submarines, divided into 9 different directions for cruise, in order to find the target, originally, should be used airship to reconnoiter and search, but in the vast Atlantic, the airship target is too significant, so the choice is the submarine, through the intelligence in the United States, the huge ship group has determined the route, should not make changes.

Sure enough, after 2 days, along the route of the search, finally good to the other side of the huge ship, almost 100 large ships, is in the fixed channel, fast forward, when the first reconnaissance ship found the target, through the radio to notify the rear, the whole sea area is boiling, this is probably in the history of mankind, after the submarine, the submarine in a certain sea area, the most intensive operation.

The radio is really very convenient, separated by 150 nautical miles, this side is still received, Pol's quick order, set up an ambush in front of the channel, 52 ships, divided into different groups, a group of 24, mainly a smaller amount, mainly against cargo ships, and another group, 28, the smallest is also a 1500-ton ocean-going submarine, they are equipped with the latest torpedo tubes, can release two rounds at the same time, 12 no torpedoes, he was pumped to deal with 12 escort warships, as long as the battleship is sunk, the rest of the ship will become a ripe fruit, more than 600,000 tons of cargo ships, the value of the cargo ship alone is close to 200 million, plus the materials on it, the loss of almost 400 million US dollars, will definitely make Britain suffer a big loss.

In the early hours of the morning, the mist of the North Atlantic, still shrouded the earth, and against the backdrop of the night, it seemed that every seafarer felt particularly comfortable, and after waking up from the deepest night, the navy guarding the entire ship group around them, as if they were stretching the fatigue of the night, looking at everything in front of them.

Shift, after a night of high-intensity duty, the seafarers tilted all their fatigue into the ocean, and at this time, the traces of more than 100 torpedoes, at once drove away the comfort of the night, the war, at the moment of dawn, opened, the poignant siren, in the calm sea, suddenly sounded. The shouts, the sirens, the whole regiment, from the most comfortable to change, as if suddenly turned into a state of tension, the close defense machine guns, constantly ringing, they frantically fired at the sea, trying to knock out the torpedoes that were close at hand, but the sudden attack, as if everything was in vain, in the end, there were three or four torpedoes, under the attack of the saturated machine guns, exploded before they hit, and the rest, most of them hit the target.

Suddenly, when the red fire reflected the morning light, everything was already doomed, 28 ships, each of which emitted 8 fish, divided into two groups, more than 200 fish, and the entire escort fleet was networked, and in the net, those destroyers and cruisers, almost in vain moved their positions, but the closest distance of the torpedo attack was 800 meters, and the farthest distance would not exceed 1500 meters, so close distance, with a torpedo speed of about 50 knots, it may not exceed a minute, to be able to hit these fleets, dodged one, not the other, the dense network of torpedoes, did not let go of any of the escort fleet, there was no way to dodge this attack, when the sound of explosions and fire, enveloped the whole early morning moment, a war of annihilation was underway, the brunt of the 7 largest cruisers, each of them hit more than 3 torpedoes, there was no room for any reaction, just because of the sudden attack of the torpedoes, sank into the water.

Later, there are statistics that this attack, which opened at ten o'clock in the early morning, caused the sinking of a total of 17 ships, including all the escort fleets, plus some cargo ships, the entire fleet, it seems that in an instant, it lost the ability to protect, which is equivalent to a naked beauty, waiting for the arrival of the robbers.

Lost the escort fleet fleet, at this moment just woke up from a dream, frantically left the position of the ship group, but everything was too late, in order to ensure safety, the dense arming of the ship group, at this moment but suffered the loss of this dense arming, the sea wolves swarmed, one two, even three or four torpedoes, frantically rushed to this fleet, and finally, on the sea, there was a piece of oil, more than 600,000 tons of ships and the same amount of cargo, forever sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Escort, actually did not play any effect, but because, because of the escort, not only silenced 12 large and small arms, 78 cargo ships, but also many submarines surrounded and annihilated, this is the largest ship loss since the British war, the degree of heavy damage to Britain, far above one or two fierce capital ship confrontations, 12 ships, 1,800 sailors of various types, plus 78 cargo ships, more than 7,000 seamen, not to mention the loss of materials, in terms of personnel, Britain can not bearSeafarers are not only the whole of the UK. The foundation of shipping, and the basis for the Royal Navy's rapid recovery after the loss of ships and sailors, was definitely a big loss to the British under the surprise attack of the German Far Sea Fleet.

In a short period of time, Britain's long-distance cargo ships, lost too much tonnage, in a sense, there is no sense of existence, the front more than 1 million tons, plus the current more than 600,000 tons, in less than a month, was sunk more than 2 million tons, even if Britain is the power of the four seas, the tonnage of the navy and cargo ships is the world's best, such a continuous blow, but also let him unbearable, from the beginning of 1914, British ocean-going cargo ships, do not sink a large number of situations, The use of American cargo ships was the only option for Britain unless he wanted to bury the rest of the scattered carriers scattered around the world on the American-British route.

The Germans, after initial hesitation, quickly made a decision to declare that the entire North Atlantic region was a war zone, and all those who sent the necessary war goods to Britain would become the target of attack, regardless of the ship transporting these military supplies, which became the order of the list.

Even the British did not expect that Germany was so unceremonious that it actually issued an ultimatum, and at first there were American shipowners who did not believe in evil and wanted to challenge this ultimatum, when the United States went to Britain on the waterway, in less than 24 hours, after a continuous silence of 50,000 tons of ships, no one dared to challenge this ultimatum. I have to say that this ultimatum has a certain effect, those cargo ships that entered the freight field because of funds quickly withdrew, and the sea wolves hunted part of the fleet, so that the British freight, almost fell into silence, and the chains were tightened again, so that Britain was facing suffocation. (To be continued......)