A melodious whistle echoed in the sky, looking at the rough sea, and everyone on the ship had a deep sense of powerlessness and fear for the future. The ship at their feet didn't even have a name, the crew affectionately called it "317", and it wasn't a passenger ship, but a freighter converted from a transport freighter.

As a German family living in the United States for a long time, the Kohler family has their own small company in New York, USA, and the outbreak of war affected the American economy, and their family was not affected by luck because of luck, so it can be said that before November 20, the world war seems to be very, very far away from the Kohler family.

Just yesterday, however, the U.S. began expelling people of German descent, and as a tentative agreement between the two sides to declare war, civilians between the two countries would leave the port freely for a month, and neither side would be allowed to attack transport ships evacuating civilians. So for several days, the docks were crowded with Germans who were about to leave the United States, carrying large suitcases and waiting for ships from their homeland with their families.

If you are lucky, you can spend some money to board the evacuation ships from the United States to Germany, and those ships are all passenger ships, which appear to be high-end and powerful, so most of the rich and well-connected people leave the United States on that kind of ship. And if the figure is cheap, and there is no way, then you have to wait for the ships from Germany to meet you.

The hasty declaration of war disrupted the ordinary life of German personnel in the United States, who were required not to take more than $10,000 in cash, not to take away any industrial equipment and drawings, and in the future, the patents of these German personnel would no longer be protected by law, and those who were willing to stay in the United States must also live in a centralized manner and be subject to supervision and inspection by the American security services.

This made the Germans who had lived in the United States for many years feel humiliated, and more people were worried about their lives and future social status, so many Germans eventually chose to leave, lined up under the spears of American GIs, and boarded the place where they had lived for decades.

Uprooted, these Germans did not have a good impression of the great Führer of the motherland, they lost their jobs, their income, and even a large part of their property, just because the distant Führer did not know what was crazy and wanted to declare war with the United States. Many people don't care about the American bombing of Romania, and it would be easier to let them understand the importance of the oil fields to Germany than to let them discuss what to eat for lunch.

And when the transport ship from the motherland came to carry them away, everyone had a strong sense of rejection towards the motherland that had no impression. The interior of the wide transport ship is obviously used to transport goods, and the temporary hammocks are extremely simple, not even the private space is cut off, and everyone's luggage is also left at their feet, if you don't look at it, it is estimated that it will be completely lost in a few hours.

Compared with the ships used by the United States to pick up their own expatriates, these transport ships from Germany are simply no different from thatched tents, and it has to be said that compared with the United States and Britain, the great seafaring powers, the Germans at least have no advantage at sea, and the only strength is filled into the navy, as for the civilian ships, there are really not too many.

Because with the defeat of the British mainland, the number of British civilian ships that fled to Canada was huge, and these ships were basically of little use, and they did not dare to go south into the control of the German Navy, so they could only be idle or sold to the Americans, so the number of passenger ships that the United States could hold in its hands was really unimaginable.

On November 20, the Axis bloc, led by Germany, declared war on the United States, and only ten minutes later, the United States also declared war on the Axis powers, and it took only a dozen hours for the two sides to enter a state of war from neutrality, and this time must be counted from the beginning of the US attack on the Romanian oil fields. Therefore, most of the expatriates on both sides did not have time to evacuate, which is why there was such a strange incident as the exchange of expatriates between the two sides of the war. So much so that later historians liked to date the actual start of war between the two sides as December 20, because it was only on that day that the two sides actually cut off the exchange of diasporas and officially opened fire.

The big guys open their mouths, and the little guys break their legs. This sentence can be said to be a very correct description at any time. With the war of Accardo, Germany then began to organize transport ships to the United States to evacuate the expatriates, but compared with the huge fleet of the United States, the Germans were much more shabby, most of them were temporarily drawn from the older Hercules transport ships, and there were only a few passenger ships.

Therefore, compared with the evacuation fleet dominated by American cruise and passenger ships, German transport ships can be said to be in tatters at all, and it is precisely because they have seen the luxury of the United States and the shabby of Germany that these German personnel who have not yet set foot on German territory have begun to despair and pessimism, and even regret their decision to leave the United States and return to their homeland.

The only thing that is gratifying is that the old German Hercules transport ship has a relatively wide hull, although the speed is average, but it still has a good performance in resisting wind and waves, and the tonnage of the Hercules transport ship is not small, so although the living conditions are very simple, it has more or less alleviated the pain of some seasick personnel.

The old and slightly old Hercules transport, as you can see from the top of its openwork metal staircase, the mottled rust-stained handrails, this ship has been adrift at sea from the moment of its birth, transporting all kinds of production materials for its homeland as much as possible. Some of the bars have been twisted and deformed, but you can still see the simple and functional thick design of the ship.

"It's a nice ship, and if it weren't for the people, I think it would have been a little more competent. Even though November in the North Atlantic was already very cold, Kohler preferred to stand on the deck and blow the icy sea breeze rather than the dreary cabin, which was less comfortable but more in tune with Kohler's personal appetite.

The German captain stood on a short deck outside the wheelhouse, holding the telescope in one hand, and was visibly surprised to hear Kohler's standard German, and then replied very politely: "You speak German very well, and now few people are willing to enjoy sailing with the sea breeze, and you are a good sailor by nature." ”

Kohler was tempted to scold the bastard Führer, and then tell the captain he was talking to that if it hadn't been for that bastard's declaration of war with the United States, he would still be lying in a comfortable bed and spending a happy weekend with his wife and children!

Just as the two of them were chatting without a word, in the distance, an American destroyer was turning its bow and heading in the direction of the German Hercules transport. The 127-millimeter cannon on the bow looked majestic, and the sharp bow cut through the icy water, stirring up beautiful white waves.

On the bridge of the American destroyer, the captain of the American destroyer was so pleased with the prey he found that he was ordered to maintain order in the nearby marginal waters, and he understood this task as a task that could rob some unarmed German transport ships along the way, carrying thousands of German expatriates, and threatening people to extort almost 180,000 yuan, an errand that would definitely make his peers drool with envy.

So under the watchful eye of the German captain, the American destroyer got closer and closer to the course of the German Hercules transport, the distance between the two ships had been shortened to several kilometers, several turrets on the American destroyer had turned, and the black hole cannon made the civilians on the German ship tremble.

"Listen to the ships in front! We are US Navy destroyers! Please stop the ship immediately and accept our inspection!" In the bridge, in the public channel band of the radio communication channel, the US destroyer's broadcast is being played over and over again, although it is in English, but it is obvious that everyone on board knows that everyone will have to pay some "fees" more or less after the ship is stopped.

"In the content of the agreement between the two sides, there is no requirement to stop the ship for inspection! Ignore the other party, keep the course and speed! Keep going!" The captain ignored Kohler, who was looking at him nervously, and said to the first mate who came over to inquire about countermeasures: "German ships are not in the habit of being ordered by outsiders. ”

"Boom!" After a few more minutes, the American destroyer seemed to see that the German transport ship had no intention of stopping, so it finally opened fire in a fit of patience. A shell swept through the bow of the German transport, exploded at a distance of about 100 meters, and set off a high column of water, which was forced to slow down due to the fact that the enemy opened fire.

Kohler saw the opposing destroyer approaching with great force, and felt that his personal safety was no longer guaranteed, and he wanted to go back to the cargo hold below, looking at the gold bars and dollars that he had smuggled out, and he really wanted to stay with his family, because maybe this was his last day.

"A bunch of cheap bones!" The American captain proudly put down the binoculars in his hand and said with a smile to his subordinates: "If you don't open fire, you still think that we have really given them face! Although the German navy is powerful, can a broken transport ship still win against my destroyer? Let the sailors bring their guns and prepare to board the ship, gentlemen, we are going to get rich!"