Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven Attention

Scapa Flow Naval Base is the anchorage of the Royal Navy's main fleet in the British Isles, located in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland. .This location is located precisely at the hub of the German sea transportation line entering and exiting the North Sea, which has important strategic significance.

Undoubtedly, there are often some attractive targets for German submarines at this base. Many battleships in the British main fleet come and go here, such as the well-known battlecruiser Hood and the battleship Royal Oak. Docked here.

But just like other impregnable fortresses, Scapa Flow is heavily guarded, and the British army stationed a large number of troops here for defense. On the shore defense, there are as many as several large-caliber artillery pieces, and dense anti-aircraft firepower is also deployed.

And at sea, especially for possible submarine attacks. During the First World War, the submarine ub-116 under the command of Ermsmann dived into Scapa Flow in October 1918, but sank due to a mine strike, and all crew members died. This operation convinced all senior British naval officers that any attempt to break through Scapa Flow was absolutely impossible.

But God is a god who doesn't like to brag about human beings, so anyone who brags and is sure of his own ideas will not end well. For example, all unsinkable ships, such as the sailing Titanic and the fighting Bismarck, did not end well. The same example includes Pearl Harbor, which the Americans believed to be invulnerable, and the Maginot Line, which the French believed to be invulnerable...

In the words of Akado's warning to the submarine force commander Dönitz, any attacker "requires the most daring and intense aggressiveness, requires extraordinary courage and superb technology." So the Germans planned to surprise this time. Even if what they have to face is not only the heavily defended Royal Navy, but also strong currents that cannot be predicted in advance, its strength is enough to make the submarine deviate from the planned route and get into a dangerous situation.

Akado and Dönitz have been secretly studying a raid all this time. Both of them want to try to let a German submarine sneak into the waters of Scapa Flow and deal a heavy blow to the Royal Navy, so that the British will be killed in a few days. Within a year they lost their edge and collapsed.

The reason why Yuan attaches so much importance to a tactical attack is not that Doenitz is so superficial, because Akado wants to use a successful attack to hide the ultimate move he really has in his hands.

The outcome of the naval battle off the coast of the Netherlands was confirmed by Akado as early as 1937. Although the lack of decisive battle courage of the German navy delayed the victory until the beginning of 1938, Akado had already been preparing for this victory.

One of the backhands is how to make people forget this victory. This follow-up plan can be said to be an important step for Akado to disrupt the rise of the sea power of various countries. Akado actually has a lot of fears in his heart, one of which is the fear of the United States' ability to destroy everything without interference.

If we let American industry run at full speed,

Germany may still be able to compete for one or two without interference, but if the British blockade is added and dragged down, Germany will only go back to the old days of defeat.

The geographical advantages of the United States cannot be changed, and Germany will not be able to threaten the United States for a while-this is a very modest statement. In fact, Akado also knows that let alone threaten the United States. Now he even glanced at the east coast of the United States. There is no strength.

On the other hand, once the powerful American industry is in operation, Germany must face the threat of ten or even twenty American aircraft carriers. Acado did not want to point out the correct way for the United States to develop the navy so early. He hoped to reveal the answer to this mystery as late as possible, so that the U.S. Navy could be caught off guard.

Germany's steel is limited, and the war with France and Belgium has caused a break in Germany's steel imports. The existing reserves are not enough for Germany to let go of its own hands and feet to develop its own navy, land and air force. Although Akado rejected the plan to build battleships and heavy cruisers under tremendous pressure from the navy, the saved steel was only enough for him to produce 7 aircraft carriers. In other words, if only the original resources of the navy are used, his current navy is almost at the end of its development.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish a powerful navy before the Americans react, a navy capable of dominating the Atlantic Ocean, and an elite maritime force with an aircraft carrier as its core. In this way, even if the United States enters the terrifying stage of mass-producing aircraft carriers in the later stage, it can rely on its accumulated wealth to ensure that the Atlantic defense barriers are foolproof.

So how can the British and American admirals not notice the German aircraft carrier fleet? How to make the British Royal Navy, which has been hurt, divert its attention from the German aircraft carrier fleet? Acador decided to perform another miracle to conceal his own true intentions.

How can a person forget the pain of a severed finger? The answer is simple, that is to find a way to cut off one of his arms! Driven by this idea, Akado and Dönitz drew up this p plan as early as 1937 when the invasion of Poland began. The purpose of this plan is to use a brilliant victory of submarines to divert the attention of the world's navies from aircraft carriers, and let them shift their attention to the "real secret weapon-submarines".

The German naval intelligence department has made a lot of preparations for this, and collected some intelligence information about Scapa Flow through the German Air Force and some submarines patrolling the sea, merchant ships that passed here before the war, and the all-pervasive spy department. On September 11, 1937, just before the war with Poland, a modified seaplane of the Luftwaffe managed to take some clear pictures of the base; Submarine 216 also ventured closer to Scapa Flow and brought back some valuable reports.

After careful study of the above intelligence, the German Navy Submarine Force Command concluded that it was necessary to attack at night because the water flow on the seabed was relatively slow at that time. The next problem is to determine who to carry out the attack mission.

Now we all know that this person is Prien, the one who is now commanding the sub in Scapa Flow, dumbfounded. He was indeed stunned, because in front of his eyes was a huge fleet that he had never seen in his life.

How big is this fleet? Including the 4 aircraft carriers of Ark Royal, Bravery, Glory and Hercules, there are as many as 5 battleships, including Revenge, Sovereign, Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth and Barham, and other cruisers There are too many to count, and the destroyer can't see the end at a glance.

This may be the largest fleet in the history of mankind. If you count the German High Seas Fleet sunk near here by Operation Rainbow, almost half of the warships built by mankind have been collected here.

The problem facing Prien now was not that he couldn't find the target, but that there were so many targets that he couldn't decide which one to attack. His submarine can launch 6 torpedoes in one breath, the first 4 and the last 2. In order to ensure that his target is destroyed, he also needs to ensure that several torpedoes attack a target at the same time.

This was really embarrassing for Prien, so he looked around on the water and found what he thought was the perfect attacking position. Then he decided to have a good time, and he went back into the submarine himself, and came to the former torpedo launch bay. There he rushed nearly all of his crew and began assigning tasks.

In order to get as many battle results as possible, he found a few ropes and hung them on the ceiling of his submarine. Then, with the help of these ropes, he used the principle of leverage to let his crew hold the torpedo in front of the torpedo hatch, etc. Dress up.

"In a moment I will fire one of the four torpedoes in front, and then you will immediately load the two torpedoes below, and then I will salvo another target. Then you will have about 10 minutes to fire the top two torpedoes. Reload the torpedo launcher," Prien said to his crew.

He said while explaining: "When you are loading, I will turn the submarine and shoot out the torpedoes at the tail! Then I will turn the bow again and attack the fourth target. After shooting these torpedoes, we will retreat."

"Is there a problem?" he finally asked looking up.

Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at him, eyes full of indifference. They knew that in the middle of the attack, the British would recover and come to them, and those destroyers would quickly block the entire port, and their chances of escaping and ascending to heaven were negligible.

"No problem! Captain!" The torpedo technicians said with a smile: "Don't worry! We will let the British know how powerful our German submarine is."

Prien bowed deeply: "You are the best soldiers in the empire! Don't die today! My friends will be invincible in the future!"

"The world is invincible!" Everyone shouted with a suppressed voice.

Prien aimed at a huge silhouette with the help of the faint light. Judging from the mouth of the wheel, it should be a British aircraft carrier. It looks like it has at least 20,000 tons. And not far from this aircraft carrier, there is also a huge battleship docked, which is the main reason why Prien chose to attack here first.

"Aim at the target!" Prien put his eyes on the scope, focused on his target, and gave the first order gently.

"The torpedo is ready!" The torpedo operator replied.

"Bow torpedo tubes No. 1, 3, and 4, get ready!" Prien continued.

"Torpedoes No. 1, 3, and 4!" the torpedo operator replied.

"Launch!" Prien loudly issued his first attack order today.

"Launch!" The torpedo operator pressed the button to launch the torpedo.

"Bang!" Everyone in the boat heard the sound of the submarine launching torpedoes. Along with the vibration and noise, a torpedo ejected from the front of the u-211 submarine with air bubbles. swim towards their goal.

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