746 Fleet HH II

British submarine technology is not without development. On the contrary, at the end of World War I, the anti-submarine technology of the British Royal Navy can be described as powerful. However, their technology did fall behind with the passage of time, especially when targeting new German submarines. This gap in technology and tactics caused an irreparable gap.

Generally speaking, on the British destroyers, or more recently on the American destroyers, the sonar system has not been updated at all, and its detection accuracy is no longer enough to calibrate the specific position of the new German submarine, so it is impossible to detect The destroyer's next attack provides precise instructions.

For a long time, German submarines have not updated their own technology. Even the most powerful submarine under Dönitz is only an enlarged and enhanced version of the U-shaped submarine in the World War I era. Therefore, the United States and the United Kingdom mistakenly believed that the Germans had not developed new technologies, so the United Kingdom did not regard submarines as an invincible opponent.

After all, Britain lost its homeland in a short period of time after the war started, which put the British at a technical disadvantage. Many laboratories and large equipment can only be destroyed and cannot be taken away. Therefore, except for a few technologies that the UK tried to preserve, other technologies in the UK have been broken and incomplete, and they cannot meet the needs of war-sonar technology is one of them.

Therefore, the United Kingdom has given up the research and development and promotion of some technologies. After all, even if some technologies have been strengthened a lot, they cannot be put into combat use immediately. Therefore, some technological developments were all canceled, and only the continued aviation and radar technology were kept as key projects for full development.

Facts have proved that there is indeed nothing wrong with the British approach. Using old-fashioned anti-submarine technology and increasing the search density on the Iceland-US route, they sank 4 German submarines in June and 9 German submarines in July. May also sank 5 ships, peaking at 12 in September, 4 in October, 6 in November, and 8 in December. In addition to the possible sinking of an uncountable number, the Allied forces have sunk a total of 38 German ocean-going submarines in the past 7 months, which is not ineffective.

The data proves that according to the existing system, the Allied forces can still deal with German submarines. Because of this, most of the weapons and equipment produced by the United States are concentrated on fleet cruisers and aircraft carriers. battle at sea.

Against such a large background, the emergence of Germany's advanced submarines directly broke the balance of power between the United States and the United Kingdom in terms of anti-submarine, and forced it to face the cruel reality that the new German submarines have already entered service.

"Sir!" A British naval officer knocked on the door of Dudley Pound, the current First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy. With permission, he walked up to the 61-and-a-half-year-old head of the navy, stood at attention, and after saluting, he said respectfully: "The news just came that the special mixed supply fleet numbered hh2 has just arrived. Was attacked by the submarine force of the German Navy and suffered heavy losses."

"What happened? How many German submarines were sunk?" Dudley frowned and raised his head.

Leaving aside the documents he was processing in his hand, the old general had experienced the First World War and was a very experienced admiral. However, this unlucky naval commander took over from Churchill's class and is struggling to support the most severe passive situation in the history of the entire British Empire.

Of course, facing the same test as him is the well-known Hugh Dowding. He was ordered to take over the entire British Air Force in Iceland. He only had 80 hurricanes, 110 improved p-40s and 44 with an astonishing failure rate. Meteor jet fighter.

When the British naval officer heard General Dudley's question, he immediately replied: "The battle report is still a bit confusing. We are sorting out the testimonies of several destroyer captains, and some merchant ship captains who were in the fleet at the time. Description. But some reports are very strange, for example, several people's telegrams mentioned two or more 'ghost' submarines."

General Dudley Pound raised his eyebrows. The thing he feared the most was inevitable. When rumors of the ghost submarine first came to the sea, he realized that it might be a part of the German Navy. A new type of submarine, but he really has no ability to change the anti-submarine level of the British Navy, so he can only grit his teeth and choose to ignore the rumors about this ghost submarine.

He once urged the U.S. Navy to develop more accurate sonar technology, and to help the escort ships on the east coast of the United States and some ships of the British Navy to replace them with more advanced radar detection devices. He did not pay much attention to General Dudley's suggestion.

Now the retribution is coming. In one morning, the United Kingdom and the United States lost almost 30 destroyers and merchant ships with a total tonnage of more than 90,000 tons. The lost goods are countless, a large part of oil and food are lost, and some munitions ships are also doomed.

"More than two new German submarines?" It was futile for Dudley to use any monsters to cover up at this time, so he simply set a nature for this matter: there are no ghost submarines in the world, and there are only German troops. Just a new submarine.

The British naval officer who heard this statement was taken aback, then nodded and acknowledged Dudley's words: "Yes... yes, sir! The Germans used at least three new submarines to launch the attack. Although our destroyers have been was repelling their attack, but until our planes and other ships arrived, not a single German submarine was sunk."

In January, the entire Allied forces sank a total of 3 submarines of the German Navy on the route, all of which were old-fashioned U-shaped ocean-going submarines. However, this record did not make the British very happy, because during this month, they waited Here comes the even more deadly new German U-boat.

"When will the hh2 fleet arrive here?" Dudley asked with a helpless sigh. Now that the loss has occurred, then consider what responsibility and other things. He now feels that the most difficult thing is the entire energy supply problem in Iceland. Iceland, which has lost a lot of fuel, is likely to be completely paralyzed in such cold weather.

The HH2 supply fleet has always been one of the more important fleets in the hands of the British government-in-exile. Together with HH1 and HH3, it supports the main material transportation task of the British government-in-exile in Iceland. The remaining single or multiple transport ships are just supplements to these three large supply fleets. Now that one of the three fleets has made a mistake, the things directly affected are already very scary, not to mention the impact of radiation.

Once more new German submarines appear on the route, the hh1 and hh3 fleets will also become unsafe. Based on this inference, the final conclusion is that the defensive positions deployed by the United Kingdom in Iceland will also be due to The scarcity of fuel eventually leads to a breakdown.

The reason why Iceland has been unable to develop in history is because of its own limitations. The British government-in-exile built this place as a forward base to retake the mainland regardless of the cost, and it had to rely on supplies from the United States. Now that the Germans have come up with a trick to get rid of the bottom line, Dudley can only smile wryly.

It seems that among the commanders of the German Navy, there are also powerful characters with unique strategic vision! Dönitz, Lütjens, and that Raeder... including the head of state, Akado, it seems that none of them are free roles. And this time the move was obviously planned by the German submarine godfather Dönitz.

"Adding the newly arrived escort fleet to the HH1 fleet that is about to return to the United States for transportation missions is really impossible. The patrol destroyers and cruisers are mobilized from Canada to ensure the safety of the HH1 fleet!" Dudley thought for a while and said Issued his own combat order. What he can do now is very limited. Apart from increasing the escort force of his own transport fleet, he can only pray to God that the opponent's submarine has run out of ammunition and left this throat sea area by himself.

In fact, after such an attack, the German submarines did disperse and act alone. The reason is actually very simple, that is, Prien's u-47 submarine battery had a problem and had to leave early. The remaining 4 submarines had to fight on their own.

As for the poor supply fleet of hh2, it was devastated in the early hours of the day. Prien's u-47 achieved an impressive record of sinking 4 ships of the opponent, which also made his personal sinking The total tonnage has risen to an incredible 200,000 tons, and he has become the veritable number one commander of submarines in the world.

On the vast North Atlantic Ocean, accompanied by the icy wind and choppy waves, the Navy of the Third Reich fought the most brutal battle with the Royal Navy. No one remembers how many battles took place in the Atlantic Ocean during this war , but the soldiers who have experienced these battles have imprinted them in their hearts. Only when they had a drink in the bar would they tell these thrilling stories, many of which were legendary, making people around them nostalgic for this war-torn era.

But it is a pity that the people who lead this era, such as Prien, don't like everything in front of them. The icy sea water hit the hull of the submarine's conning tower, and the splashed water hit the leather coat, leaving some water marks. Lighting a cigarette, for some reason, Prien thought of the young SS captain on the supply ship again, and remembered the resolute expression on his slightly immature face.

"Full speed ahead! Keep heading!" Prien said to the first officer beside him: "Let's go home!"