Six Hundred and Two Distant Fleets

August 29, 1938. Wiping the sweat from his head, a German sailor with his bare upper body stood on the deck, looking at the calm ocean, smoking a cigarette comfortably. Behind him, two soldiers sat on the 88mm anti-aircraft cannon, blowing the sea breeze boredly, feeling the familiar ocean atmosphere.

This is a U-shaped ocean-going submarine of the German army, because the technology is mature and the failure rate is very low. It is suitable for long-distance sneak attack operations in the ocean, and can even dive all the way to the east coast of the United States to lay mines or pick up spies. Of course, it has a total of 6 torpedo tubes, 4 in the front and 2 in the rear, so it is more handy to start its old business of attacking merchant ships.

This fleet is the German submarine squadron sent by Germany to Australia. These ten submarines were escorted by a German cruiser squadron along the way, crossed the hot equator, and came to the northern hemisphere. At the equator, the fleet also performed a traditional equator crossing ceremony.

According to the customs of the regions near the equator, the old sailors disguised themselves as the kings and queens of the sea. These disguised figures then perform a ceremony on deck U-307. During the ceremony, the captain of the submarine No. 307 wore old pirate captain clothes and even carried a medieval command knife. Similar to today, German sailors wore various clothes and dressed themselves with various things .

Some people dress up as kings, with crowns made of folded paper, and sailors use the roots of broomsticks as beards. Dressed up as Aquaman, the Godfather, or even the Virgin Mary, these people are as funny as the ghosts and ghosts in Halloween. The captain and the assistants of the first mate also put on the local straw skirts at this time, dressing themselves up as women.

Then, with laughter and laughter, the recruits were forced to swallow nasty pills, and then they were washed with a cocktail of milk, salt water and fuel oil. Then they shaved, cut their hair, and wiped the dust of the northern hemisphere from head to toe, Only then were they allowed to enter the southern hemisphere cleanly.

Even at such a relaxed moment, the officers and soldiers did not dare to relax their vigilance. Only half of the officers and soldiers participated in this ceremony, and the remaining half stayed in the cabin ready to fight at any time. But in the waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, this is completely superfluous. The British fleet here is no longer large, and American and German merchant ships are everywhere on the sea. What's more, when it was on the equator, this German submarine formation was escorted by cruisers and destroyers, and the radar on it could detect incoming aircraft at a distance of 100 kilometers.

The German army now has nearly 350 submarines, and this scale has already made Dönitz proud of his peers. What so many submarines brought to Germany is the brilliant record of submarines breaking the war. After a series of improvements, German submarines used a large number of mature technologies, and the sailing rate once reached an astonishing level. Doenitz has 200 submarines that can be put into combat, of which about 100 are deployed in the North Atlantic, more than 70 are hunting in the Arctic Ocean, and the remaining 20 submarines are ordered to perform combat missions in the Mediterranean and Gibraltar.

The remaining 10 ships will be sent to Australia as planned,

There, the attack mission against the Japanese navy was launched. But everyone knows that this German fleet is just for show. However, this fleet also has its own mission, which is to store its own experience for Germany's ocean-going missions.

On each submarine, 10 technicians are assigned to replace the original sailors. As testers and maintenance personnel on board, they are responsible for keeping the submarine in good operation at all times. More engineers and maintenance personnel are on board the supply ship, and they will provide a higher level of maintenance service for the submarine.

They practiced ocean voyage along the way and tested some new equipment on the submarine, including a passive radar monitor, which is used to detect the radar waves fired by the opponent and provide passive radar early warning for the submarine. There is also a small radar system installed on a submarine that can detect sky targets 70 kilometers away. Although it is not very reliable, it is enough to provide a safer diving environment for submarines.

These devices are all prepared for the expedition to the Pacific Ocean, because after all, the Japanese naval aviation has left a deep impression on people, and Akado does not want the submarines sent out to be threatened by Japanese aircraft. Of course, there is also a submarine equipped with a streamlined island to test whether the noise reduction under water is as good as expected.

A kind of underwater snorkel invented by the Germans can allow the submarine to stay underwater for a long time. Although this snorkel emits black exhaust gas and stirs up a lot of waves, this kind of equipment can indeed allow the submarine to stay underwater for a long time. In the state of the car, the diesel engine with more powerful horsepower is used as the driving force.

Clever submarine commanders quickly mastered this new technology. They re-drafted the submarine combat technical code and changed the navigation specification to "navigating at night with a snorkel, which can effectively reduce the risk of the submarine being discovered." probability."

The submarine fleet parted ways on the equator with a German guided-missile destroyer and a cruiser protecting them. The submarine fleet, several supply ships and three northern British destroyers continued southward, while the German cruisers and destroyers returned to the Mediterranean to participate in anti-submarine escort missions.

Germany's two new guided missile destroyers are now only one left. Facts have proved that using liquid fuel missiles at sea is a very dangerous thing, although an ultra-long-range attack brought the history of human use of missiles forward to 1938 But a few months later, a German guided-missile destroyer exploded due to a refueling accident, and was finally discharged from active service due to serious damage.

Facts have proved that it is completely wrong to blindly increase the technological content of weapons for the sake of data, which will lead to stability defects due to immature technology. The Germans went back to the old way and began to wholeheartedly start building new automatic artillery cruisers to replace immature guided missile destroyers.

For this long voyage, because of the lack of overseas supply bases, the Germans did not choose to detour through southern Africa, then passed through the Indian Ocean controlled by the British, and finally bypassed the Malacca area controlled by the Japanese, and entered the Pacific Ocean to fight. Instead, it took the opposite route.

The entire German submarine squadron would sail south in one unit, eventually reaching the southern part of South America, where they would be resupplied in Argentina before sailing from relative safety directly to Australia. As a South American country, Argentina has always maintained good diplomatic relations with Acador's German Third Reich. It is really convenient for the German fleet to obtain supplies there. (There was a saying in history that Hitler fled to Argentina, which shows how close the relationship between Germany and Argentina was at that time)

The German sailors who took turns ashore in Argentina had a good time, and at this moment they are already breaking the waves in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Their target was Australia, which was the "territory" of their allies, a place that was being invaded by the enemy Japan. They were there to fight, to show the determination of the Third Reich's global presence, and to soothe the fragile hearts of northern Britain.

The sea breeze was blowing on everyone's faces. The submarine captain standing on the bridge in the middle of the ship put down his binoculars. A northern British destroyer in the distance sent a signal of safety. It seemed that the Americans had no intention of stopping Germany. people into the Pacific to fight. In fact, Roosevelt received a notification that the German navy appeared in Argentina a day ago. The intelligence showed that the Germans wanted to enter the Pacific Ocean through southern South America to fight. Roosevelt immediately sent a telegram to Nimitz, ordering him not to provoke the fleet from the Third Reich.

In fact, Nimitz really doesn't have the energy to manage this fleet from Germany. He has nearly a hundred destroyers in his hands, dozens of cruisers, plus a few battleships that have just been repaired, and the only remaining ones. Two aircraft carriers, the Yorktown and the Raider (if you count hard, the Langley is barely a seaplane carrier)-such a fleet is still stretched to deal with Japan, and of course he will not have nothing to do to find trouble with the Germans.

Now Nimitz is more interested in the light aircraft carrier Independence that the United States is rushing to manufacture. Once several aircraft carriers of this level enter active service, the U.S. Navy will at least have the power to fight the Japanese Navy. But now, Dönitz can only watch helplessly as the Japanese prepare to attack Oahu and are at a loss as to what to do.

"It seems that the Americans don't intend to intercept us, and it seems that they didn't provide our information to the king, Britain." The German submarine captain said with a smile while lighting a cigar for himself. He got a lot of good stuff in Argentina, cigars being one of them. Generally speaking, it is a very luxurious enjoyment for captains on missions in the North Atlantic to come out to smoke after the submarine surfaced, but because most of the submarines sailed on the water during this mission, at this moment, the captain did not Show that suffocated expression.

"I heard that we will arrive in Australia in another month. I don't know if the people there will welcome us." The first officer leaned on the railing, enjoying the cool feeling of the sea breeze, and said, "I heard that before A merchant ship dispatched is about to arrive at the port there, and they will send us the results of the negotiations."

"Is no one sick?" This is the question he asked the most recently. Every day, every crew member has to measure their body temperature and eat all kinds of unpalatable dried fruits under the supervision of the officer to supplement the corresponding vitamins. .

"Everything is normal." The first mate replied, "It seems that our luck is really good."