After some professional and meticulous calculations, the deep-eyed officer reported a result that stunned others: "The 9-centimeter pulse radar is consistent with the radar band equipped by our maritime patrol aircraft." ”

The non-commissioned officer immediately looked embarrassed, he worked hard to calculate, according to the current instrument data, the result is indeed 9 centimeters - during the war, the British and American research and development equipment of the centimeter-wave radar is considered to be the best, the Germans did not obtain this technology until the later stage of the war, but the situation at that time has not allowed them to copy and put into use on a large scale, which also makes the British and American military feel fortunate, to know that the detection accuracy of the centimeter-wave radar will significantly improve the efficiency of Germany's night fighters, The application in the field of naval vessels is also proven.

"It seems to be our own cruise aircraft." The handsome officer made his judgment down the river, but he immediately questioned himself: "Huh? How did our patrol aircraft fly so far? It's still more than a thousand nautical miles from Scotland! ”

The deep-eyed officer frowned: "To be exact, 1,300 nautical miles!" Calculate the distance and azimuth of the radar wave source! ”

After receiving the order, the technical non-commissioned officer hurriedly used the various data displayed on the instrument to carry out measurement calculations, this semi-automatic, semi-manual method was very common before the advent of computers, and it did not take much time to give a preliminary conclusion: "Within 10 nautical miles, it should be directly in front of us!" ”

The deep-eyed officer did not repeat the calculation, and as soon as he heard the number, he hurriedly walked out of the bridge. Going up the gangway to the second floor of the bridge, he borrowed binoculars from his colleagues on duty and glanced at them a few times, but there was not even a shadow of a seabird in his sight, and there were no patrol planes. As for the surface of the sea, it is difficult to observe the subtleties at a distance of more than 5 kilometers with only six times the telescope.

When the handsome companion came up to the bridge, the deep-eyed man said to him, "John, I have a very bad premonition. ”

Although his companion frowned habitually, he deliberately reassured: "But Robert, it's been almost a year since the end of the war!" ”

The former said with sorrow: "The old war is indeed over, but who can say that the new war is out of reach? ”

The latter retorted speechlessly, struggled for a moment, and asked rhetorically: "Go and report to the captain?" ”

The former looked at his close companion and made a difficult decision: "Yes, go now!" ”

At the same time, on the "Europa", which had already belonged to the French, the two officials who came to handle the handover formalities on behalf of the political axe of the French Republic, Datier who was as tall as Charles de Gaulle and Valmora who was as thick as Churchill, stood on the upper deck of the deck building in their crisp black tuxedo and neat bow ties, looking down from the open terrace at the American GIs basking in the sun on the foredeck, whispering in French in style, completely unaware of the great danger looming, Instead, they gloated over the strife between the three most powerful countries, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom.

"I heard that they drove the German prisoners of war to build an extremely complex defense system in the long area stretching from the sea to the Alps, and named it the 'Truman Line', although the labor is free, and a considerable part of the construction raw materials do not cost money, but the large number of weapons placed in the defense line is not cheap, artillery, machine guns, mines and various auxiliary equipment, in terms of scale, its cost is probably equivalent to two Maginot lines!" The fat man said with disdain.

The tall and thin man continued: "Anyway, the Yankees are like nouveau riche who get rich overnight, with a full treasury and nowhere to go, and they don't mind spending it. We? This is to move the border defense line forward for France by hundreds of kilometers, and with these hundreds of kilometers of buffer, even if the Truman defense line is broken by the Soviet army, the industrial facilities in the rear of the Soviet Union should be blown flat by British and American bombers! Besides, they were so afraid of a Soviet ground offensive, but did the Soviets still have the strength to launch a full-scale offensive? Despite their aggressiveness in the late stages of the war, and even extinguishing the flames of war in Europe with an unprecedented ferocity of the Battle of Berlin, the Americans still underestimated the losses and trauma inflicted by Germany on the Soviet Union during the war. It can be said that most of the male surnames of the Soviet generation died in the war, and it will take many years for them to regain the age and surname composition of the people - as was the case in France after the end of the First World War. ”

The fat but not short French official nodded and exclaimed: "Yes, the Battle of Berlin is an absolutely beautiful political banner, and against the backdrop of the Ardennes counterattack, many American generals were afraid of the Red Army that defeated Nazi Germany, do you remember what General Carter of the US Army said at a private dinner that Saturday in New York?" The Soviet army was like a Viking on land, ready to start a Viking storm that swept through Western Europe, and the Western Allies could only hope that the English Channel would once again defeat this formidable adversary in a period that could be more than six years. Mind you, it was a 'feared' opponent, which showed that the Americans simply did not have the confidence to defeat the USSR on land, let alone the British [***] team. ”

The tall and thin man suddenly became frustrated: "So what else can we expect?" The tough hand of the Soviets in the occupied zone was not inferior to that of Nazi Germany! ”

The fat man smiled: "As you just said, the Soviets have no ability to attack in an all-out way, not to mention that their new ruler is said to be a wise person who is inclined to change the long-term isolation of the Soviet Union and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the Western world. ”

The two stood here alone and talked for a long time, until the French crew in blue shirts and white trousers hurriedly came: "Gentlemen, captain, please go to the cockpit!" The British Navy sent a signal to us to adjust our course and get out of the water. ”

"Bypass this area? Are we off course? The tall and thin man asked.

Now on this giant cruise ship, most of the crew are still the American crew members who have been responsible for the maintenance of it for most of the past six months, and the French have only brought more than 30 crew members to gradually get acquainted with the situation, and the French crew member in front of him is one of them, he replied: "No, we are completely on the normal course, but the British Navy has not explained, and the captain is trying to communicate with them." ”

"What the hell are the British doing?" The tall and thin man muttered dissatisfiedly, and he made eye contact with his companion, "Let's go!" Take a look at the cockpit! ”

By the time the two French officials arrived at the cockpit of the giant cruise ship, which was not very well equipped, the French captain and the American navigator were arguing fiercely, somewhat of a chicken and duck because they were not very proficient in each other's languages.

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! What's going on here? Is World War III about to break out? The chubby French official shouted that the reference to "World War III" was quoted from a recent hot word in the US press, and the good thing in the US press gave full play to their imagination under the title of the current pattern of disputes between the United States and the Soviet Union and Britain causing chaos, some said that war would break out within the year, some said that the Soviet Union would undergo internal changes and return to the open world, and some said that the red revolution would sweep the whole world, and the topic of war was undoubtedly the most eye-catching. The United States has the atomic bomb, the world's largest navy and air force, and strong national strength, and the Soviet Union has the advantage of geographical resources, the world's largest army, and a tenacious national surname.

The French captain and the American navigator, who had repeatedly guided the ship between Europe and the United States, looked at each other and immediately ceased their arguments, and the French captain immediately reported to the two political officials: "The British cruisers have sent one signal after another that there is an unsafe situation in the waters ahead, and that they will bypass these waters whether we change course or not, and that the rest of the voyage will return to the original course." Mr. Mattson thinks we should follow the advice of the British [***], but I personally strongly disagree, and it is very risky for such a 50,000-ton cruise ship to temporarily leave the channel, although there are no icebergs, but we are not sure whether there are reefs in the nearby waters. Ships may have been able to pass safely in the past, but the draft of this ship is not comparable to that of ordinary ships. ”

After listening to the captain's explanation, the tall and thin man questioned: "What is an unsafe situation?" ”

The French captain pouted and shrugged, saying that he also felt very inexplicable.

"In that case...... "The tall and thin man was only halfway through his words, when the first mate, arranged by the Americans, shouted very impolitely, and everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw that the British light cruiser had begun to adjust its course, and the white waves on the right side of the bow had widened markedly, and the stern was the opposite.

"These arrogant and arrogant Brits!" The tall and thin man scolded indignantly, although Britain and France belonged to the camp of the allies during the war, and the leading organization of the Free France lived in Britain for a long time, but after the surrender of France, Britain attacked the French fleet "before it happened", causing heavy losses to the latter, this account has always made the French lingering, and after the war, de Gaulle's political axe pursued an independent strategy of relative reading, and did not maintain a close distance like Britain and the United States.

The chubby official stood next to him and whispered, "Are we going to send a message to Paris for instructions or ......?"

"Back and forth, I'm afraid this British cruiser will disappear without a trace! What the hell! The tall and thin officer looked hatefully at the British [***] ship on the sea, he thought about it with great confusion, and discussed with his colleagues: "Follow the British cruiser!" If something goes wrong, so many people here can testify that it was the British who asked us to change course, at least the greatest responsibility should not be borne by us. ”

The stout official gritted his teeth and nodded with difficulty......

(To be continued)