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    "Mr. Secretary of the Navy, in the past half month, sixteen of our merchant ships have been attacked by German raiders, and four more merchant ships have been attacked by German submarines and sunk." An officer held a report.  Reported to British Admiralty Secretary Churchill.  ¡°Where were these attacks?¡± Churchill asked.  "Mr. Lord of the Admiralty, please come here." The naval officer took Churchill to the wall, where a large nautical chart hung.  "Mr. Secretary of the Navy, this is the location where the first attack occurred. According to the telegram sent back by the attacked ship, it was a battlecruiser that attacked them." The officer picked up a pointer and pointed at the location on the map and explained:  "Then the second attack happened here, and it was also a battlecruiser that attacked them. The distance between the two attacks was more than 600 nautical miles, and they were only a few hours apart in time, so it was done by two battlecruisers.  The third attack was at this location, by two cruisers. The fourth was at this location, by a battlecruiser, three hundred nautical miles away from the location of the second attack. It was probably the same battleship.  " "In this case, there should be two battlecruisers and two other cruisers in this area." Churchill nodded and said, "Where is our fleet now?" "Your Excellency, Lord Admiralty, are we?  The two battlecruiser formations have already rushed to this sea area. They are now at this position and this position. In about two days, they will arrive here and here." The naval officer pointed out on the chart.  Those positions.  Churchill folded his hands on his chest, raised his head and looked at the chart silently. After a while, he whispered: "The German battlecruisers can operate at a speed of more than twenty knots for a long time when necessary.  After two days of sailing, it is entirely possible that they will be hundreds of nautical miles away. We have so many routes to protect. It is really like finding a needle in a haystack." "Your Excellency, it is difficult for the Germans to obtain supplies, so it is impossible for them.  If we continue to sail at this speed, our situation is different. Our fleet can always maintain a higher speed. Every time the Germans attack our merchant ships, their position will be exposed, and we can pursue them closer.  A little. We will definitely catch them," the naval officer replied.  "It's not that simple, our friend." Churchill shook his head. "If I were a German, I would leave the route for a period of time after every two attacks and move to other areas. For several days,  I will not launch an attack. Then when I attack a merchant ship again, I may be thousands of miles away. As for supplies, the most important thing is to supply fuel, preferably from the captured merchant ships.  Get fuel supplies. In addition, the range of those damn German battlecruisers is quite good, much better than ours. It¡¯s all because of those damn Americans!¡± ¡°Your Excellency, maybe¡± the officer said here,  He hesitated again.  "Maybe what? What do you have in mind?" Churchill asked quickly.  "Your Excellency, maybe we can specially deal with the ships transporting fuel." The officer replied, "All the ships transporting fuel move in formation, and we use old-fashioned battleships to escort them. These battleships are too slow and are inherently  It is difficult to organize into a large fleet to fight. But it should still be possible to fight against the German battlecruisers. Moreover, the Germans lack port support. Once the warships are damaged in the battle, they will not be able to restore their combat effectiveness. At that time, they will only take risks.  Break through our blockade in the North Sea and escape back to the country. It is so easy to enter and exit the Denmark Strait. "The British still have some older battleships. Some of these battleships were originally going to be sent to the shipbreaking yard, but the war  After the outbreak, these ships were left behind. Although these things were a little old, they could still be used.  For example, now, these ships can be used to escort those oil tankers.  Of course, these old battleships are not in very good condition, and their firepower and defense are below modern standards.  The British felt that if this kind of old-fashioned battleship faced the German battlecruisers, it might not be able to defeat them.  However, it is estimated that the Germans will not dare to take action against these old things, considering the maintenance issues after damage.  Churchill thought for a while and said: "This is a good idea, and it can be handled this way in the future. In addition, we should also station naval soldiers on each transport ship. Set bombs on the keel of each ship. Once it is bitten by an enemy ship, the ship will be destroyed.  The personnel immediately reported the location, asked Hou to turn on the bomb's timing device, and let all the sailors get on the lifeboats. In this way, I don't know where the Chinese people will go to get supplies!?The tricks did bring a lot of trouble to the Germans, but the German attacks were still not contained. There were rumors that the Germans had purchased some ships as private individuals in some countries in South America before the war.  During the battle, these ships would load some necessary cargo and go to sea, use radio to communicate with the Germans, and send supplies to German warships.  In short, the German attacks continued.  The British actions were not without effect. A few days ago, the British fleet encountered a German battlecruiser and a cruiser, and launched an attack on the Germans. The German warships hurriedly avoided, and finally took advantage of the cover of a thunderstorm.  The battlecruiser finally escaped, but the other cruiser failed to escape and was torn to pieces by the British battlecruiser's cannon.  However, this small victory did not change anything. The German attack ships were still in action. Within a month, they sank as many as 300,000 tons of transport ships and sent a large amount of strategic materials to the bottom of the sea.  It also included some very important things, such as the large number of chemical protective suits ordered by the French in the United States, which also caused a serious crisis on the Marne River front line. Fortunately, at this time, the French also had some mustard gas in their hands, and they fought against it.  After that, the Germans also suffered heavy casualties, which allowed the front to stabilize.  (Germany lacked rubber, and the full-body protective chemical suits were not conducive to offensive operations. In addition, they were insufficiently prepared for the French mustard gas. As a result, they received a blast of mustard gas shells from the French during the attack, and lost one soldier on the spot.  More than 10,000 people.) If you add in the number of German submarines sunk, in this month, the German Navy sent more than 400,000 tons of transport ships to the bottom of the sea in one go.  If this situation cannot be changed, the situation of Britain and France will become particularly difficult.  ¡­ As Minister of the Navy, Churchill also felt a lot of pressure, but because of the constraints of the German High Seas Fleet, he really could not send more battle fleets to search.  The French also sent their own fleet to help. However, France has always had to relax its naval construction in order to compete with Germany on land. Therefore, the French navy's ships are lagging behind compared to those of the United Kingdom and Germany.  Some of them don't even have battlecruisers on hand, so searching is of no use and can only be used for escort.  Churchill has also taken some measures recently. He organized transport ships into a fleet and escorted them with old battleships.  It's just that there are not enough old-fashioned battleships, so some of the strongest warships in the escort formation are just cruisers.  Speaking of which, the Royal Navy of the British Empire's invincible prestige over the years is still very effective. As long as they see the Union Flag flying on the mast of the escort warship, even if it is just a few cruisers and destroyers, the Germans will behave very cautiously.  However, the French navy does not have such majesty.  On August 22, 1914, two German battlecruisers and two German cruisers attacked a merchant fleet escorted by a French squadron and sank twenty-two merchant ships in the merchant fleet.  Fifteen of them hit and damaged an escorting French warship.  According to the accounts of the merchant ships that escaped, when the German attack ship pair appeared, the French fleet only fought with the Germans for less than fifteen minutes. Just as the wind turned, the Germans did not pursue the French fleet.  Instead of giving up, they attacked the merchant ships that fled in all directions. If it weren't for the fact that there were only four German warships and could not catch up with all the merchant ships that fled in all directions, I am afraid that the losses of the entire formation would have been even greater.  Of course, the French would not admit such a statement. They claimed that the largest warship in their escort formation was only a cruiser. When faced with the overwhelming advantage of German warships, they fought bravely. As for the final decision, they still gave up.  The merchant fleet suffered heavy losses, mainly because the enemy was too powerful, not because we were incompetent.  ¡­ While Churchill was still worrying about the German attack fleet at home, a guest came to visit him.  "Anthony Lawrence?" Churchill frowned when he saw the name on the business card handed in by the servant.  Churchill knew that the Lawrence family was almost the spokesperson of the annoying Yankees in the UK. Churchill was very disgusted with such guys. If it weren't for those damn Yankees who knew nothing but money, how could the Germans have those things?  Such a disgusting battlecruiser.  However, frowning, Churchill still asked the servant to invite the visitor in.  After all, the American behind this visitor is too important to Britain now.  "Mr. Lawrence came to the humble house, I don't know what's going on." Churchill did not go around the circle with Anthony, but asked directly.  "I know from the newspapers that the German attack ships are very rampant now. And I happen to know that there is a technology that may be able to deal with these Germans." Anthony??Answered straightforwardly.
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