Chapter 725 Atlantic Strangulation War (34)
In the early morning of November 29, a large number of cargo ships still stranded in the port began to leave the port in large numbers under the "kind persuasion" of Canadian soldiers holding submachine guns. It was made clear enough: the German aircraft fleet might arrive again in a few hours. If the freighter does not want to be completely destroyed, it must be evacuated and leave the port as soon as possible. Although there are still German submarines lurking outside, and the escorting warships are currently unable to destroy them, at least the freighter in front has suffered a round of torpedo attacks, which greatly consumed their attack weapons, so it is generally safe for the freighter to leave the port...
Smart people understood immediately, but everyone was reluctant to act as a shield to attract torpedoes, so they walked slowly one by one, hoping that the ships in front could use up the torpedoes of the German submarine as soon as possible. In fact, the torpedoes of German submarines were consumed faster than they expected. Most of the 12 submarines only had one-third or even one-fifth of the torpedoes left. Facing the intensive departure of the fleet, the intimidation effect was limited. As long as Rushing forward with enough energy to break through the interception, but no one is willing to sacrifice themselves to achieve others, so the evacuation speed is very slow. For more than an hour, two-thirds of the nearly 200 ships stranded behind were moved, leaving Thomas anxious. I get angry but there is nothing I can do about it.
At 12:37, the German lightning strike detachment, which was advancing at high speed, had arrived at the scene. They thought that they would have to deal with at most one or two fleets. Suddenly, when faced with the dense green light spots on the screen, everyone took a breath of air. How many ships are there?
"Command all ships: bow to the enemy, line up in an arc..." When he was only more than 6,000 meters away from the ship group, Lieutenant Colonel Marcus excitedly issued the order. When he was first dismissed from the post of captain of the destroyer, When he was promoted to be the captain of the Kitakami, he had been very excited, thinking that his opportunity had come to show off his talents, thinking how exciting it would be if he could kill a battleship or aircraft carrier with his own hands. Mine equipment, in the previous battles, took advantage of the excitement and returned disappointed - not to mention personally launching torpedoes, even for air defense, other destroyers or cruisers needed to provide cover. This made all the officers and soldiers on the ship complain and kept asking to be transferred to the S-boat unit. At least there they could fight happily, right?
Now the opportunity has finally come!
Ten minutes later, with Kitakami and Oi as the core, 24 S-boats formed a majestic wild goose wing formation around the two warships, with a distance of 12 kilometers - very much like the elite archers in medieval cold weapon battles.
"Torpedo preparation! Maximum range!"
"emission!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" The eight H9s flying out of the two 4-unit torpedo launch tubes in the first row on the left and right sides of the Beishang immediately rushed into the cold North Atlantic. After entering the water, the torpedoes rose to the designated location after a while. Depth - generally 3-6 meters. The thermal power of oxygen combustion drives the propeller to rotate rapidly and rush forward.
The scene at that moment left Markas in a trance, as if he saw sharp arrows that covered the sky and rushed towards the enemy's charging team. The 24 S-boats launched 72 H9 torpedoes in this round. Oi and Kitakami launched 16 in total. A total of 88 torpedoes went straight towards the Allied fleet. These were no ordinary torpedoes. They all weighed 2.85 tons and hit the enemy. Whoever died was the number one killer in the torpedo world.
"S-boat reloads, launches all northbound and Ooi!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" The two heavily-equipped torpedo ships had a total of 40 torpedo launch tubes, and they were all launched under Markas' order. Now, there are a total of 152 torpedoes advancing forward on the sea outside the small port of St. Johns.
What's even more chilling is that such a terrifying enemy is still reloading!
All the German officers and soldiers waited quietly on the warship to see the upcoming fireworks. No one dared to rush forward rashly. Not to mention that the Lightning Strike Detachment had no warships that could block the H9's shot. Even if a 10,000-ton treaty heavy cruiser collided with the H9, it would be inevitable. Heavy.
"How many ships do you think we can hit?"
"One out of four, at least 40 ships!"
"I bet one out of three, 50 ships!"
"Boom!", "Boom" Even if launched at the maximum range, the H9 can run at a high speed of 34 knots. When it was launched just now, the lightning strike detachment was only more than 5,000 meters away from the edge of the cargo ship, and this distance was covered in an instant.
"One ship, two ships...eight ships...eleven ships...twenty ships..." When they counted to 26 ships, all the German officers and soldiers could no longer count because the explosions were too dense and dazzling, and it was impossible to count them. To identify which ship had been sunk, they could only hear loud bangs and flashes of fire.
"Torpedoes... torpedoes! There are a lot of torpedoes outside!" The sailors on the ship screamed. They tried their best to avoid the torpedoes, but the torpedoes were so fast, their tracks were not obvious, and there were ships on both sides, so they could not avoid the torpedoes. , or can only collide with others.
Explosions, screams, and calls for help converged into a tragic scene of doomsday.
Even if the torpedo passes through the gap in the front team, it will later find a suitable target and be destroyed. There is only one result for being hit by the H9 - sinking! Two unlucky destroyers were directly blown into two pieces by torpedoes...
Markas, who was full of joy and his eyes were about to narrow into slits, turned around and told the telecommunications staff: "Use Morse code to send a message to these stupid geese. The main fleet of the German Navy is here. If you want to die, just rush out." ”
"It's a lie, it's a lie. There is no main fleet, at most it's just some destroyers. You can win by just rushing over... If you gather here, everyone will die together."
"But they have a lot of torpedoes!"
"Boom" was another loud noise.
Maca accidentally glanced at the radar screen. The dense green light spots were now much sparse. He felt a pain in his body, and all the money was heavy! But in the end I can only comfort myself: "Life is like this sometimes..."
Fearing the interception of torpedoes and torpedo detachments, these freighters hesitated to rush out. A few brave destroyers wanted to destroy the enemy forces on the opposite side. Although the bombardment strength of Oi and Kitakami was not strong, the torpedoes reloaded on the S boat But deadly enough.
At 1:06 in the morning, Lieutenant General Bei received the report and nodded repeatedly in praise: "Well done! Fortunately, the Thunder Strike Detachment taught these cowboys a lesson during the torpedo night, otherwise the enemy would have escaped without being able to catch them. Is it better to bombard the port or hunt down the freighter?"
"Sir, although some freighters have returned, there are still daring people rushing out, and some destroyers are trying to attack the lightning strike detachment."
"How far is it from them?"
"At least 20 kilometers!"
"Simple... The heavy cruiser sprints at full speed to deal with those flies. All battleship artillery fires once. The distance scale is set at 22,000 meters. Tell the Americans that we are coming!"
"Rumble" seven powerful Axis battleships lined up in a straight line and fired a salvo with naval gunfire. Dozens of water jets splashed into the sky at the port of St. John's. There were even two artillery shells that were very lucky. , hit the target directly - of course the result was that the shot entered the soul...
"Send a clear telegram to these freighters... to stop and anchor and surrender to our troops. I will guarantee their status as prisoners and enjoy relevant rights and interests. Anyone who dares to damage ships or cargo will be regarded as guerrilla members and will not enjoy the benefits of the Geneva Convention "All rights and interests, and executed on the spot after capture!" Lieutenant General Bei issued the order with murderous intent. The messenger shrugged and went to send the telegram without saying anything.
At 2:24 in the morning, the telecom staff officer with cold hands and feet trembled and handed the telegram to Lieutenant General Ingram. Admiral Jin beside him had collapsed on the sofa from exhaustion after a long day's work.
"...The German main fleet suddenly appeared outside the port of St. John's, intercepted the fleet and sank many freighters. In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, the remaining freighters have decided to surrender. Some freighters returned to the port and went ashore to escape. The Germans are now using naval gunfire Attack the port with all our strength, our army is in urgent need of continued reinforcements!”
"It's over..." Ingram sighed. More than 300 ships and nearly 5 million tons of supplies on Newfoundland were all gone!
"Wake up General King and General Marshall for a meeting. The Germans are about to land..."
When Admiral Jin woke up in a hazy state and heard about the urgent military situation, the first thing he did was to ask Ingram: "How many ships escaped?"
Ingram shook his head hesitantly and handed the telegram to the latter. After reading the telegram, the always tough Admiral Jin suddenly had a sore nose, burst into tears, and started crying: "300 ships, 300 ships, how can I Talk to the president?”
The young staff officers around them all sobbed in low voices. It was nothing to lose some supplies, but losing 300 ships and 5 million tons of supplies together was not something even the wealthy United States could withstand.
Marshall sat silently in his seat. Arnold stared blankly at the ceiling, as if he could see the plane through the roof. Eisenhower remained silent. He suddenly remembered the dejected scene when he was forced to withdraw troops from Africa. The scene also made me cry loudly.
"Let's have a meeting..." After Admiral Jin regained his composure, Li Hai spoke first, "The president is not in good health. Don't tell him such exciting news for the time being. The British side must also try to maintain it as much as possible..."
Everyone nodded silently.
"The enemy is bombarding the Port of St. John's. Judging from the current situation, there is no doubt that a landing operation will be carried out. The key now is to defend Newfoundland." Admiral Jin took a deep breath, "I don't think we have any chance. There is no chance, at least there are two Canadian divisions on the island; at least, the Army Air Force can launch an attack after dawn; at least, General Cunningham's fleet is in the process of arriving for reinforcements..."
"Is it possible to put the enemy ashore, use army troops to hold them back, and extend the time they stay in Newfoundland, so that we can mobilize superior forces to destroy the German army?" Ingram made a suggestion, and everyone's eyes lit up, and they immediately gathered around Discuss this plan...