Five Hundred and Sixty One Chase

torpedo? Yes, torpedoes!

Who would have thought that a German submarine would suddenly appear here? Who would have thought that the opponent had already launched a torpedo without anyone noticing? And didn't it say that the submarine would not sneak attack when the speed was high enough? Isn't all this really cheating?

With his mind full of doubts, the captain of the Soviet battleship didn't even have time to issue an order to evade. The first officer, who had participated in the First World War, saw that the situation was not good, and quickly shouted: "Full left rudder! Avoid torpedoes! Keep going at full speed! Full left rudder! Quick!"

As soon as the sailor holding the steering wheel heard the order, he quickly slammed the steering wheel to his left side, and the whole steering wheel started to rotate rapidly like an electric fan. Their battleship was named the Soviet Union. If it was sunk... okay Well, even if he was wounded, it's not easy to explain to the superiors.

The effect of the full speed steering of the ship at full speed is quite obvious, but the speed of the ship is fast, and it is impossible to go faster than the cruising speed of the torpedo. Destroyers can't do this. A battleship with a weight of tens of thousands of tons It is even more impossible to do it.

"Boom!" With a huge explosion, the entire Soviet ship shook violently. Obviously, the first torpedo had hit the hull. Now everyone is no longer lucky, they can only pray, I kept praying, praying that the warship under my feet could withstand the test of this round of torpedo attacks, even if it was seriously injured, it would definitely not sink.

The huge explosion tore apart the heavy side armor of the battleship, pierced the bulkhead of the compartment inside, and twisted and deformed the keel structure supported inside. This is the most powerful crystallization of the human chemical industry. With the help of the most violent force of nature, it simultaneously destroys the strongest and thickest fortress of the human smelting industry.

This time, the former obviously won. The huge explosion destroyed the entire structure of several cabins. Seawater is pouring into the hull in large quantities, and the oil has leaked to the surrounding sea surface in a large area. It looks hideous like a bloodstain. horrible.

Of course, all this is far from over. There was not only one huge explosion. The second torpedo quickly hit another position of the battleship, which was relatively close to the rear of the hull, and it was also the position where the entire battleship originally had the thickest armor. But it's a pity that this place is too close to the place where the torpedo was just blasted, and the internal structure distortion caused by the torpedo just now directly made the nearby cabins and stressed structures fragile.

The second explosion made everyone desperate. This torpedo directly blew up the surrounding cabins into a gap. About a dozen cabins were completely destroyed at once, and the influx of sea water was faster than before. And this time the explosion had a more deadly effect-the speed of the entire Soviet battleship slowed down all of a sudden!

So none of the third and fourth torpedoes were wasted, and they all hit near the tail propeller of the Soviet Union.

This time it really killed the Soviet Union, not only the two huge propellers on the starboard side were blown away, but also the rudder was completely destroyed, seawater poured into the stern of the hull, and soon It merged with the seawater entering from the side.

So just two minutes later, the hull of the Soviet Union began to lift rapidly from front to back, the red waterline painted on the bottom of the bow hull was moving away from the sea, and the sharp bow was also being lifted out of the water at an incredible angle .

Most of the damage control personnel inside the hull were swept away by the influx of seawater. When the seawater rushed into the boiler room, the entire warship lost power. The working efficiency of the water pump immediately dropped several times, and the tilt of the hull became more serious. It took only 15 minutes from when the Soviet Union was hit to when the damage control failed.

You have to lament the means of human beings. It often takes a long time for them to build a huge result, but sometimes it only takes a few seconds to destroy this result. It took a full three years for the Soviet Union from design to construction, but its sinking did not take half an hour from the time it entered the water.

The well-designed anti-torpedo structure could not resist the devastation of four large-caliber torpedoes, and the thick armor also failed to prevent the raging high explosives. This is the true meaning of war: No matter how strong a fortress is, it cannot always resist the enemy's attack. Sometimes the Great Wall is not the best choice.

Torpedoes are responsible for destroying the armor and shaking the defense system of the battleship. The sea water does the rest—they pour into the interior of the battleship, pushing the distorted walls, through cracks and holes, into vents and door gaps, and then occupy one after another that belonged to the air. territory. When they squeeze a lot of air out of the hull, the entire battleship will be overwhelmed, pulling more cabins into the water, and the cycle continues, until the entire ship sinks to the bottom of the sea.

The heavy armor laid down to prevent damage has now become a cumbersome coat that cannot be removed. Hundreds of tons of solid steel plates are pulling the battleship to sink slowly. All human efforts seem to have become negligible at this time.

"The Soviet Union! The Soviet Union! You are tilting! You are tilting! Do you need help?" On the bridge of a cruiser behind the Soviet Union, the captain of the cruiser kept calling the Soviet Union with a radio.

A few minutes later, the Soviet Union sent its first telegram after being hit, and the content was also very simple: "I was hit by a torpedo, damage control failed, and all crew abandoned the ship!" When this telegram was sent, The stern of the Soviet Union has sunk into the sea, and the huge bow in front has been completely lifted out of the sea by the huge leverage force.

All this is somewhat similar to the sinking process of the Titanic, except that the bow of the Titanic sank into the seabed first, and the stern was pressed up to leave the water. The Soviet battleship was the complete opposite. The stern of the ship sank to the bottom of the sea due to water ingress, and the bow of the ship was raised high.

"Destroyer! Search the entire sea area! Catch that German submarine and sink it!" The captain of the cruiser immediately took over command of the battlefield, and after a little hesitation, he immediately issued a combat order. He didn't want to lose another warship because of the rescue work, or let go of the murderer's German submarine when the Soviet Union had sunk.

"The explosion was on the starboard side of the Soviet Union! The submarine is on our starboard side!" The captain of the Soviet destroyer had a thick beard and he had rich combat experience. Because he served as an anti-submarine commander in World War I and possessed very skilled anti-submarine skills.

"Full right rudder! Go at full speed! Prepare depth charges!" He raised his binoculars and looked at the possible location of the opponent's submarine. There was a calm place, as if nothing had appeared. However, he was very sure that under the calm water, there was a submarine speeding away in the opposite direction.

"Don't turn back the rudder! Deviate from some routes!" The bearded commander of the destroyer confidently pressed the steering wheel with one hand, preventing the sailors on his own ship from turning back the steering wheel. The destroyer veered off course a bit, then returned to the direction it had intended to be heading for another minute or so.

Go straight after a submarine? What's the difference between that and courting death? In case the opponent jumps over the wall in a hurry and counterattacks with the torpedo at the tail of the submarine, it is definitely a very difficult problem. He carefully made evasive actions, so relying on the inaccurate sonar system on the submarine side, it would be impossible to easily fire back.

Behind the destroyer, the Soviet cruiser had already sailed near the Soviet Union and began to lower the lifeboats to save people. There was a dense mass of Soviet sailors floating there, and they would freeze to death in the icy waters before long. The huge Soviet ship's bow is now almost submerged in the sea, and the powerful 381mm caliber cannon is now standing on the sea like three chimneys.

"Captain, aren't we going to save people? Without us, the speed of saving people may be too late." The first officer looked back at his comrades soaked in the water, his tone full of anxiety. You must know that there are more than 1,600 officers and soldiers on the Soviet Union, and even if half of them are killed, there are still 800 people.

"There are other ships to save people! We are responsible for killing that German submarine!" The bearded captain said stubbornly: "We can catch him now!"

"Can you catch it?" The first officer was taken aback, then turned around and looked at his captain in shock.

"It can't run far!" The bearded man said confidently, "I want to sink it!"

The destroyer under his feet is the latest anti-submarine destroyer purchased from the UK. It was built in July 1937 and is very young. In fact, the negotiations for the purchase of this destroyer were still very tortuous, which can be regarded as a short story.

This ship was originally one of the new destroyers designed and built by the British Navy. The Soviet Union deliberately leaked the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact" before it was completed and waited for the Navy to accept service. This news surprised Britain and France. Had to free up their hands to prepare to deal with Germany who deceived them.

In order to thank the Soviets for their "kind reminder", the British Navy sold this new destroyer to the Soviet Union. After all, the British Navy had not been challenged by the German High Seas Fleet at that time. So the Soviet Union got this new destroyer that "symbolizes the friendship between Britain and the Soviet Union".

This destroyer is equipped with a relatively new type of sonar, which is considered to be a slightly professional anti-submarine destroyer in the Soviet Navy. That's why the Soviet Navy sent an experienced bearded man as the captain of the destroyer, and assigned the destroyer to the Soviet Union as an escort ship.

Now, the official contest begins. A destroyer stared at its prey, but this prey was not a cute seal, but a steel shark that could open its mouth at any time.