"A distress signal?" An officer in the German Navy's radio cabin frowned at the message in his hand, then glanced at the electromechanical officer who had just received the message in confusion, and finally folded the message, then turned and walked towards the end of the corridor.

The coordinates stated in the telegram were not far from the German battleship, on the contrary, they were very close to each other, and in another cabin, the German radar operator had already seen the strange trajectory of the two ships not far away from the screen, and also wrote down what he observed on a sticky note, and approached the conning tower.

Since the German new cruisers (in fact, in terms of sea attack power, that is, large-tonnage destroyers) began to enter service on a large scale, some improvised ships in the hands of the German Navy have become somewhat dispensable. In particular, the armored ship Lyuzov, which was forcibly pulled to the aircraft carrier formation to be responsible for defense, was used as an ocean-going independent assault ship because it was really a bit of a waste of performance.

As for the fleet's night cover at sea provided by the original three, but now only two armored ships, the cutting-edge battleship Marshal Raeder fills the gap. So this time to carry out the evacuation mission, the armored ship Lützov was naturally sent out and used as a fast support ship for temporary escort.

After more than two months of overhaul and refit, this pocket battleship, or armored ship, has undergone great changes, first of all, it has installed the Navy's first artillery school radar, which can rely on the radar to adjust artillery fire in very poor visibility weather conditions to achieve the effect of hitting distant targets.

Not only was the aiming radar installed, but at the very top of the mast, a search radar and a guidance radar for anti-aircraft guns were also installed, so to speak, in order to allow the battleship to go out to fight alone, the German Navy made an epoch-making super modification of it, although the firepower and maneuverability have not been improved, but the improvement of electronic equipment can be described as against the sky.

The battleship was distinctive when it was built, and this warship, which was quite characteristic of the German Navy, was armed with two triple 280 mm guns, and although it was not large in number, it outperformed most light cruisers in caliber. And the warship had a speed of up to an astonishing 29 knots, and thanks to the steady improvement in the technological development of the engines of the German Navy's ships, the battleship surpassed the speed of any cruiser.

At that time, the idea of the design of the battleship was very clear: to sink all the ships and merchant ships that were inferior to oneself, and then immediately use the high speed of the opponent to turn around and flee when the opponent's powerful heavy cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships arrived. The typical warfighting mentality at sea has created this kind of nondescript cross-border warship.

Why is this a good-sounding design, but only the Germans play with it? In fact, the reason is very simple, the navies of other countries do not look down on this kind of strange warship: the level of armor is average and the tonnage is limited, although the firepower is strong but the density is very low, the protection is similar to that of a light cruiser, and it is not at all a match for the main warship of the other side - this ship really does not seem to be able to do anything other than for sneak attacks.

In the bridge control tower of the battleship, a middle-aged German officer stood in his place with his hands behind his back, on one side of him were the helmsman and navigation officer, and on the other side stood some of his colleagues in artillery. He took the telegram for help from the telegraph officer's hand, and examined it carefully.

After reading the content, he glanced at the first mate next to him and gave the order to fight: "Adjust the course to the left, we will go to the place where the accident occurred to rescue our ship, prepare weapons and ammunition, sound the battle alarm, the whole ship will enter the combat state, raise the battle flag of the Third Reich Navy, and send a radio on the public channel to explain that the German Navy is carrying out escort missions in this sea area!"

"Yes, Mr. Colonel!" the first mate stood upright, and immediately issued a series of battle orders, the alarm was quickly sounded, and the low-elevation angle 150 mm caliber auxiliary guns on both sides of the ship pointed little by little at the sea in the distance, with a murderous momentum. And more 105-mm anti-aircraft guns and 88-mm anti-aircraft guns also entered combat condition, and the battleship Lyuzhov became alive like a hedgehog in an instant.

"Cut, I thought it was a great ship over there, a destroyer for a long time...... It's really ......" The officer in charge of artillery control on the side glanced at the message, and then scoffed a little at this combat mission, after all, the opponent was not at the same level at all, and it was really difficult to mention the desire to fight.

The American destroyer is a small destroyer with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, while the German is a standard cruiser tonnage with a full load displacement of 16,000 tons, and it is even close to a heavy cruiser.

Just as the armored ship Lützov sped up and rushed towards the scene of the incident, the process of the U.S. Navy destroyer approaching the German transport ship was not as smooth sailing as they thought, because compared to the slightly bulky Lutzov ironclad, the Reich aircraft carrier, which received a distress signal from 100 kilometers away, reacted more quickly.

Two FW-190 fighters on routine patrol immediately rushed to the sea area of the accident after receiving the order, and just when the German businessman Kohler was at a loss and felt that the time of death had come, two German fighters appeared in the sky and suddenly complicated and uncertain. The two planes were not equipped with effective weapons against the destroyers, so they could only lower their altitude and begin to shout at the Americans by radio.

The same public channel sounded a burst of mechanical German, but these voices were no different from the most beautiful vocal music to Kohler, who had not yet had time to step down the staircase: "This is the patrol fighter of the German naval aviation, we are responsible for taking over our own ships, please leave this area immediately! Repeat! Please leave this area immediately!"

This is definitely not good news for the US Navy, because after all, once the German naval aviation planes appear, if the two sides clash, then it means that dozens of German planes will arrive here within ten minutes, and they will still be carrying torpedoes and aerial bombs. An aircraft carrier fleet is obviously not something that a destroyer can provoke, and as long as you are not a fool, you can think clearly about this matter immediately.

"I am a destroyer of the US Navy! Since you have taken over this transport ship, then we will leave immediately! We will leave immediately!" In the end, the captain of the US destroyer still chose to give in, after all, the situation is pressing, and the German aircraft carrier fleet in the waters of the North Atlantic is still the boss, and no one can afford to provoke the existence.

"Two planes scared the Americans away?" Kohler thought it was very incredible, he looked at the two German fighters that were hovering around the American destroyer from afar, and for the first time he had a good impression of his homeland, after all, there are not many countries that can make Americans reasonable, and all of these countries are world-class and powerful countries.

"In the Atlantic, our navy has not yet lost!" said the captain of the transport, apparently relieved by the appearance of the plane, and walked over to the railing and explained to Kohler: "The Führer leads us to victory, and our navy is the real hegemon in the entire North Atlantic!" he said with pride written on his face, with a kind of Aryan pride.

Seeing the US warship that turned around not far from the sea and fled in disgrace, many German personnel on the German transport ship let out cheers, after all, they have been bullied by the Americans these days and have lost a lot of valuable property, and now it is indeed a very happy thing to be able to see their motherland driving away the American destroyers that are showing off their might.

At this time, someone found that in the other direction, a huge battleship appeared on the sea level, and from this distance, it was known that the battleship that appeared later was more than a little larger than the American destroyer, and in the frightened eyes of the people, the armored ship of more than 10,000 tons entered the escort route of the transport ship. The battle flag of the German Navy hanging from the mast fluttered and fluttered in the wind, making a whirring sound.

"This is the battleship of the Third Reich, Lützov, welcome to the waters controlled by the Third Reich!" On the radio, the voice of the captain of the Lützov came from the special channel of the German Navy, compared to the invincible American destroyer just now, this battleship is even more huge and mighty, and the German personnel on the transport ship are shocked and speechless with its momentum alone.

"Thank you for coming to help, those Americans just tried to board the ship for inspection, and they opened fire and threatened us to slow down. The captain grabbed the intercom and spoke his own words to the German naval vessels.

This was followed by a silent hissing over the radio, and then the voice of the captain of the Lyzov: "They still fired?"

"Yes, fire!" said the captain of the transport, holding the intercom, as if to say something very common.

"Give the order, this battleship is ready to fire!" said the captain of the Lyuzov, standing on the bridge, frowning.

"But, Captain, the other side has already fired out of the range of our secondary guns. Do you want to speed up and catch up?" the first mate was stunned for a moment, and then asked.

"No, we still have a cannon with enough range!" the captain coldly interrupted the first mate, and then spoke.

Then, under the gaze of everyone, in front of the German personnel, accompanied by the roar of machinery and the sound of metal grinding, the two huge 280 mm main gun turrets on the armored ship Lützov began to rotate, and the larger and more terrifying gun holes pointed to the distant sea.