Five Hundred and Sixty Torpedoes

"The depth is 7 meters! Continue to dive!" In the command cabin, a non-commissioned officer reported to Prienhui. At this time, in the periscope, Prien finally saw how huge the enemy's ship on the opposite side was. §Biqu Library..§

"It's a Soviet-class battleship?" Prien muttered, he couldn't believe that his luck was so good that he bumped into a Soviet battleship in the vast sea. To be honest, he didn't want it to be a battleship, because wherever there is a battleship, there will be an anti-submarine destroyer escort.

For any submarine captain, attacking a battleship in a combat zone is very risky, because even if the final success is achieved, the submarine will often face the pursuit of several destroyers immediately-credit Whether it is enough to get the medal is one thing, but whether it is ordered to go back to get the medal is another matter.

Prien left the periscope, and the first officer leaned forward to continue observing the target. Captain Prien stepped aside and flipped through the projection record of the enemy ship. He wanted to check whether there was any difference between the battleship in his mind and the image of the real Soviet-class battleship. The result made him very entangled. This is a Soviet battleship, and it is indeed the world's most famous new-generation battleship "Soviet Class".

Just talking about the Soviet-class battleship, it may be the largest battleship in the world so far. It is equipped with 9 large-caliber artillery pieces, and its layout is somewhat similar to that of Japan's Yamato. However, there are certain differences between the two. For example, the 406mm caliber main gun originally designed by the Soviet class (same as the Yamato class), was eventually changed to an imported 381mm caliber main gun because of the difficulty of the design.

However, such a battleship with the largest tonnage built after World War I did not have radar installed, and the fire control system only adopted a relatively backward version. The strongest battleship of the late war.

After comparing, Prien put down the booklet in his hand, and then issued a combat order of his own: "Dive to a depth of 20 meters, prepare to release torpedoes to attack, continue to observe, and confirm the positions of other enemy ships on the water."

"Tick...tick..." The echo of the sonar came from the earphones hanging on the ears of the German sonar soldiers, a little monotonous and a little hypnotic. However, the sonar soldier still listened attentively to this sound. For him, this monotonous sound that never seemed to change was more important than his eyes.

He can tell the approximate distance between the submarine and the enemy ship from the sound, and he can also hear whether the opponent's heading is moving away or approaching. He could hear the sound of the anti-submarine weapon falling into the water, and he could hear the explosion of the torpedo hitting the target. It can be said that underwater, he is the eyes and ears of the entire submarine, and Prien's only reliance.

"Behind the battleship,

Seems to be following a destroyer! In addition, his silhouette is too big, and I can't see another angle, whether there are more enemy ships following its side! The chief mate reported his observation results: "The ship following behind cannot see the size clearly, and the distance is a bit too far." "

"Calculate the angle! Adjust the fixed depth of the torpedo, and set the default depth to 9 meters! Quick!" Prien issued a new order.

The front torpedo compartment of the submarine began to get busy, and the technicians began to dial the gears and valves to adjust the torpedo to a fixed depth. The depth of each torpedo adjustment is different, and the depth of the explosion directly affects the damage to the target of the torpedo.

The closer the attack is to the bottom of the ship, the easier it is to cause greater structural damage. This has a lot to do with the mechanics of seawater extrusion and the design of the ship-usually the sides of warships are covered with thick armor, but the hull The bottom is relatively fragile. An explosion close to the bottom can destroy more cabins, flood more seawater, and cause more trouble for maintenance.

Of course, it is impossible to set the depth of all torpedoes in advance. The ideal depth for attacking battleships is mostly more than ten meters, but if you use this depth to attack destroyers or cruisers, torpedoes can only pass through the bottom of the opposing ship. The same is true for merchant ships, except that merchant ships are usually vulnerable, and a single torpedo is enough to solve the problem in most cases.

So most of the torpedoes are improvised and fired, pre-loading the torpedoes in the submarine torpedo bay only happens in two cases: the first case is when the submarine captain expects to launch the most torpedoes at the fastest speed , such as Prien's raid on the British port; the second situation is that the submarine has just set out to sea, and it needs to use the limited space to carry the most torpedoes for combat.

"The torpedo has been adjusted!" After adjusting the depth of the torpedo, the master chief who adjusted the machinery quickly reported it to the command room, and the order to load came from the command room without any pause.

"Load!" Following the Master Chief's order, the four soldiers pushed the hoisted two torpedoes into the launch tubes. The thick door of the torpedo launcher was closed by the soldiers forcefully, and then the two of them worked together to tighten the valve knob on the door.

"Load!" They adjusted the four torpedoes, so after loading two torpedoes, everyone did not sit idle, but quickly loaded the other two, and soon the four torpedoes were pushed into the launch tube, while the other two In the first launch tube, there are also two torpedoes stuffed in when they set off. The set depth is about 3 meters, which is not prepared for attacking battleships.

At this time, the enemy ships were not too far away from them. Prien, who had returned to the position of the periscope, confirmed the number of enemy ships through the periscope. In his periscope, there were 4 Soviet warships, one Soviet-class battleship, one An unknown cruiser, and 2 destroyers. This fleet is obviously going to Leningrad through here, but it is ridiculous that it did not adopt the standard anti-submarine forward formation.

Have the opportunity! In this way, it seems that after the sneak attack is successful, there is still hope of escape! After thinking about it for a long time, Prien finally made up his mind to take a risk. After all, such opportunities are not common, and maybe I will not be able to encounter such an opportunity again in my life.

"Correct the course! The course is 5 degrees to the left!" Prien wanted to get the best launch angle to ensure that after he successfully killed the battleship, he still had enough time to escape. After all, the two destroyers are not decorations, and God knows whether the other party will chase them.

"Ready to launch the torpedo!" Prien was waiting, waiting for an opportunity. The bow of the submarine had already pointed to the opponent's route, and the torpedo could be launched directly without even adjusting the angle. This is the most typical submarine attack, and the difficulty is also Relatively the lowest.

If the destroyers of the Soviet Navy used an anti-submarine formation, it would be quite difficult for Prien to find such a perfect launch position. However, it seems that it will take a long time for the Soviets to learn the standard escort procedures of the British. time. Prien felt that it was necessary to teach the Soviets a lesson and let them remember some knowledge that needed to be kept in mind earlier.

"No. 1 and No. 2 torpedo tubes, launch torpedoes! No. 3 and No. 4 torpedo tubes, launch torpedoes!" Prien did not fire his 4 torpedoes in salvo, he hesitated, and there was an interval of about half a second. Time is turning slightly, so his torpedoes can cover a fan-shaped area about ten meters wide.

Wait, now all he can do for the rest of the time is wait, a long wait, enough to make people upset. Of course, during the waiting time, you must find something to do for yourself, such as turning to escape or something...

"Turn! Full left rudder! Speed ​​at 4 knots, turn off the lighting in the boat, and save power!" Prien gave the order smoothly. Not only was he fleeing for the first time, he had already experienced a worse escape than the current situation. . So he is full of confidence now, because this situation is just a "small scene".

The sea was originally full of broken ice, and the white waves turned up by the torpedo were like four straight lines, extending forward from the original position of the submarine. It was very obvious from the air, as if someone had drawn 4 lines on the sea. as clear as a white line.

In the advancing Soviet fleet, the chimney of the flagship USSR battleship was emitting not very dense black smoke. The warship is heading for Leningrad at almost the fastest speed, preparing to further threaten the coast of Norway and Finland there.

The fleet commander felt that if he wanted to get rid of the threat of submarines, he had to increase his sailing speed. Once the speed of the fleet exceeded 25 knots, the submarines would have no way to attack them. This conclusion is learned from the British, because it is written in the British statistical report that the higher the speed of the transport ship, the lower the probability of being attacked.

So the Soviet fleet just swaggered into the classic long snake formation, which is still the classic World War I formation headed by battleships. Prien was a little embarrassed to attack such a pure fleet commander. To him, it was like a two-meter-tall burly man bullying a first-grade pupil.

In the Soviet fleet at this time, on the watchtower of the flagship Soviet Union, a Soviet naval officer frowned and saw a vaguely unknown object swimming on the water in the distance. At first he thought it was a seal, but he Finding that the object was moving too regularly, he picked up the telescope.

A periscope! He was dumbfounded by the image in the telescope. It was a periscope that was turning away from itself. The soldier on duty quickly grabbed the phone: "Submarine! Starboard! German submarine! Attention!"

When he was nervously reporting his findings, he could already see four white waterlines not far from the starboard side of the battleship, which were approaching rapidly, without using observation equipment such as binoculars.

He grabbed the phone and shouted instinctively in fright: "Torpedo!"