Five Hundred and Sixty-Two Twists and Turns

Submarines in this era generally have a power-saving underwater speed of about 3 to 4 knots. To put it bluntly, they are no different from turtles. The speed of a destroyer is generally above 30 knots, and it can even exceed 35 knots if the design is relatively young. In other words, it is very easy for a destroyer to catch up with a submerged submarine.

Of course, this data is calculated under the condition that the destroyer can really track the position. If you don't know where the submarine is, no matter how fast the destroyer is, it can't use a different course to catch up with a submarine that is trying to escape.

"The other party is approaching!" The sonar soldier is the submarine's eyes underwater. The German sonar soldier held the headset with his hand. After a few seconds of silence, he frowned and reported to Prienhui who was waiting aside: "The other party It is approaching the position where we launched the torpedo just now, very accurate judgment."

"..." Prien knew that he was in trouble. Who could tell before attacking that the opponent would have a commander who was so proficient in anti-submarine warfare? The formation of the Soviet fleet just now looked like a layman, but the layman turned into a professional in an instant.

"Change the course, turn the rudder to the left, and avoid it!" After thinking for a while, Prien decided to change the course to see the opponent's reaction. If it's just the menacing Lengtouqing, Prien can even consider sinking the opponent and adding more records to himself. However, he did not expect the other party to come so quickly. According to past experience, he did not leave the range of the destroyer's sonar detection.

"Keep the speed down to 3 knots! Reduce the noise!" Prien continued to issue combat orders, and the soldiers turned off some unnecessary equipment to reduce the noise made by the submarine in the sea. But obviously in seawater, the sound from the rudder, engine, and propeller propeller is the main source of noise. Unless all power systems are turned off, the probability of the other party finding them is still very high.

But no one will really turn off all the power systems, so the whole submarine will not last long, and if the enemy has not left by then, their situation will be even more dangerous.

Prien waited quietly, waiting for the opponent to show his strength, so that he could judge how to deal with it according to the opponent's strength. Now that the initiative is in the hands of the faster destroyer, he must let his opponent make the first move so that he can find his own opportunity.

On the surface of the sea, the sharp bow of the destroyer cut through the waves, leaving traces of its own speed on the water. On the bridge, the bearded captain was judging where the submarine might appear now: "Sonar, haven't you found it yet?"

He is sure of his own judgment and believes that he will not make a mistake in his prediction. The submarine of the German Navy must be found nearby. It is impossible for a submarine to be so fast underwater. At least in his experience, there is no such fast submarine.

"I found a strange signal source,

Not too strong, like a submarine, but the signal doesn't sound like a natural sound either. The sonar soldier repeatedly confirmed what he heard, but he was still not sure what it was, so he had to tell the truth. The direction of the sound was the right-angle side of the flight line, just on the edge of the maximum range that sonar could detect.

The bearded captain's eyes lit up after hearing what the sonar soldier said, and he immediately guessed the opponent's trajectory. It seems that this submarine is also an experienced guy. Just when he confirmed that his destroyer was speeding up, he changed his course and almost avoided his sonar equipment.

This is not a good sign. It is definitely not an easy task to catch such a seasoned opponent. The bearded captain immediately gave an order to turn around, because if he didn't adjust his course again, he would lose his target in ten seconds.

The destroyer turned suddenly on the sea and pointed its bow at the position of the German submarine. This made the German sonarman a little nervous, thinking that he heard the signal that the opponent was getting closer. For a submarine, it is definitely not good news that the destroyer is getting closer. All the problems revealed in this news are fatal enough.

The opponent's sonar caught the submarine, or the opponent relied on amazing luck and various messy reasons, anyway, the distance between them was shortened. If the distance between the two sides was closer, the destroyer could roughly guess the location of the submarine through sonar. At that time, the battle would become a pure massacre.

The destroyer will confirm the submarine's route through multiple sonar monitoring, and then drop depth charges on the submarine's route in advance. One after another, the depth charges will be dropped by the destroyer, and then these powerful depth charges will explode in the deep sea. If the submarine is within the range of the explosion, it will be damaged and sunk immediately.

The ridiculous thing is that the deep sea, which protected submarines from harm at that time, immediately turned into a cold-blooded monster that devoured it: surface ships sank in a process that was either fast or slow. It was originally submerged in water.

"Captain! They turned around and are still approaching us." The sonar soldier raised his head and reported to Prien Hui: "The distance between us and them has been shortened."

Prien is not in vain, he immediately judged the coverage of the opponent's sonar. This is British sonar, and this distance has been confirmed by German submarines in the North Atlantic. Now that the approximate detection range of the opponent's sonar is known, the opponent's blind spot range can be accurately calculated during the subsequent escape.

The first time the opponent rushed over, it was obviously based on experience and judgment, and this Prien could guess. The second time the opponent follows his submarine and turns correctly, it is definitely a real reaction that can only be made after the submarine has been detected.

"Accelerate! Go to 5 knots!" Prien decided to do something, since he couldn't avoid it, then let's get rid of it: "Continue to dive to the depth and set the depth after reaching 50 meters! Then notify me!"

The noise was obviously much louder than before, and the motors of the submarine began to work crazily. Only a few emergency lights in the entire submarine were still shining dimly, and the rest of the place was pitch black, making the people inside even more nervous and anxious.

"Steer! Full left rudder!" As if guessing that the opponent had already caught up with him, Prien frowned and gave the order to turn. His defensive strategy changed. The originally silent and slow rhythm was suddenly accelerated by the German submarine. A giant shark that was silent in the deep sea began to speed up, and twisted its body frequently.

The zigzag route is the basic navigation standard for submarines to get rid of destroyers. Its core idea is to use its changeable route to interfere with destroyer bombing, reduce the opponent's bomb hit rate, and then get rid of the opponent's sonar contact when possible to complete the escape. the goal of.

Sure enough, as Prien expected, on the top of his submarine, the Soviet destroyer that had just caught up, because of an order from the bearded captain, the sailors had already pushed the depth charges to the launcher ready to be thrown superior. However, with the sudden acceleration of the German submarine, the order for the depth charge bombing attack also became a standby wait.

At this time, the bearded captain also had a lot of troubles, because the German submarine's activities in the water had no rules at all so far, and the state of no rules means that it is impossible to predict the state of the opponent's next move. This is not a good state for a destroyer that must launch an attack in advance.

At the beginning, the bearded captain guessed the approximate location of the Prien submarine by using the attack direction of the torpedo. This was an important guess, which allowed the Soviet destroyer and the German submarine to maintain sonar contact. very important. Otherwise, you don't even know where the enemy is, so how can you talk about the follow-up issue of attack?

Then Prien's submarine has been moving at a constant speed, and the speed is not fast. This allowed the Soviet destroyer to quickly come to the top of the submarine and grasp the approximate depth of the submarine. But at the next moment, the German submarine suddenly changed all its states: the depth changed, the speed changed, and the route also changed.

As a result, the prepared attack methods can no longer be used. The Soviet destroyer must re-determine the data of the opponent's submarine to prepare for its own attack: it must determine the new route of the submarine, and then confirm the speed and route of the submarine multiple times. To determine the approximate position of the opponent's next step, in order to launch the next attack.

Anti-submarine warfare limited to the era and weapons is simply unimaginable today. Today's submarines and destroyers can accurately locate opponents, and anti-submarine torpedoes and depth charges can easily attack targets-even more advanced anti-submarine missiles or submarines Fire anti-ship missiles to attack opponents from a long range. But in this era, we must use more complicated and less efficient methods to try our best to sink our opponents.

"Full left rudder! Keep up with this submarine! Don't let him escape!" The bearded captain traced with his finger on the chart, hoping to grasp the opponent's action rules as soon as possible, so as to sink this cunning submarine as soon as possible. opponent.

After all, in the distance, more than 1,000 Soviet soldiers were soaked in the sea because of the attack of this German submarine, and even hundreds of people have been frozen forever on the cold seabed. The cruiser led another destroyer to salvage those who fell into the water, but because the progress was so slow, many people who fell into the water had already frozen to death in the icy sea water. What made the Soviets even more angry was that the sunken warship was called the Soviet Union.