1855 United States Tycoon

After three hours and forty minutes, five minutes earlier than originally planned, the submarine entered the predetermined position. It was already close to the evening. Captain Hafs put the submarine into a semi-submersible state, and the watchman boarded the control tower with The telescope searches the transport fleet. If the transport fleet hadn't found his submarines before, and sailed on the original course, then according to his budget, he would be able to see these merchant ships again in about thirty minutes.

The other crew members are also ready for battle. Everyone is waiting for the prey to appear, and the time has become extraordinarily long. Although it is only tens of minutes, the waiting time has been stretched for a long time. . Because the submarine had lost visual contact with the fleet in the previous few hours, if they changed their course during these hours, it would mean that U-11's several hours of running around became useless. .

About four or five minutes later than expected, the transport fleet finally appeared.

"Found the enemy fleet, distance**, direction**, speed**!" The lookout's shout finally came from the intercom.

"Prepare to dive to a depth of 30 meters, a speed of 5 knots, a direction of 006, and be ready for battle!" Captain Hafs looked at the chart and immediately issued an order. The sirens sounded inside the submarine, the watchman He hurriedly left the control tower, closed the watertight hatch, and the soldiers arrived at the own position.

"The submarine has reached a depth of thirty meters." Sailor Captain Harlan shouted.

Captain Hafs looked at his watch, then at the chart, and then ordered: "Reduce the speed to 1.5 knots!"

The submarine starts to slow down slowly. Before raising the periscope, the submarine needs to slow down the own speed as much as possible. This is because if the speed of the submarine is too fast, when the periscope extends out of the water, it will pull out a clear track. , This is almost equivalent to shouting that I am here to those ships that it wants to hunt, or the ships that want to hunt it. Therefore, before extending the periscope, the submarine must slow down.

Hafs felt that, in a sense, the submarine was very much like when he was studying, the teacher told him about the crocodiles that lived in Africa. This terrible animal is actually not top-notch in running speed or swimming speed, and its endurance is also very average. They can neither defeat the antelopes that are good at running in the competition of speed like cheetahs, nor can they force a cheetah to run to death by relying on endurance like those Kenyan blacks. They can only lurch quietly in the rivers or pools where the animals must come to drink, and when the animals come to drink, they sneak past the water and make a violent blow. The same is true for the submarine. It can only stay on the course, waiting for those ships to enter the range of its torpedo, and then make another violent blow. From this point of view, the submarine is the crocodile on the sea. However, as long as the crocodile stays in the water, there are basically no natural enemies. As long as you don’t mess with the big, careful hippos, and if you are lucky, if you are not seen by the leather dealers, basically no one will pose any threat to them. . But the situation of submarines is not the case. Those destroyers that run fast pose a considerable threat to submarines. Therefore, Hafs sometimes even envied those crocodiles.

"It's slowed down to 1.5 knots." Someone over there shouted again.

"Very well, ascending to the depth of the periscope, and then extend the periscope." Captain Hafs said.

There was a sudden rumbling sound in the submarine, which was the sound made when the compressed air was pressing part of the sea water out. In most of the time, the submarine only needs to maintain a density close to that of the sea water, and can control the depth of the submarine by operating the rudder surface. But now, the speed of the submarine has dropped drastically, which makes the efficiency of the rudder surface also drop a lot, so it is necessary to use this method to slightly adjust the density of the submarine.

Soon, Captain Hafs got the report: "It has ascended to the depth of the periscope, and the periscope has been extended."

Captain Hafs walked to the position of the periscope and began to turn the periscope to observe the target at sea.

Hafs saw the merchant ships approaching along the route he expected, and did not realize that he was stepping into the U-11 ambush circle at all.

"This speed, this angle, is really perfect, it's almost like a textbook." Hafs thought slightly complacent.

The merchant ships were getting closer and closer. At this time, Hafs discovered that there were two destroyers beside the merchant ships.

"These nasty things." Hafs thought. "In a moment, first use the four torpedoes on the bow of the ship to make a fan, and then turn around, quickly knock out the two torpedoes on the tail, and then rush to the two. Before the destroyer rushed over, leave quickly."

"Are the bow torpedo ready?" Hafs asked.

"The first torpedo tube is ready!"

"The second torpedo tube is ready!"

Soon, the four torpedo tubes were all ready. Hafs carefully controlled the submarine, and at the same time his subordinates were busy calculating the firing advance and firing angle. Soon, all preparations were completed.

"Launch torpedo..." Captain Hafs ordered.

With the roar of compressed air, four torpedoes shot out from the bow of the U-11.

"Put away the periscope, turn, let us prepare for the second round!" Hafs shouted.

The periscope was put away, the electric motor was turned on to its maximum power, and the submarine began to accelerate and steer in the water. According to Hafs’ calculations, when they complete this turn, the torpedo launched just now should take about three minutes to hit the target. So they still have time to shoot out the remaining two torpedoes. A torpedo powered by compressed air will have a very obvious track. Fortunately, there are still some waves on the sea today. Although this may cause the torpedo to yaw, it can also help cover the fish to a large extent. . Ray's track.

U-11 quickly completed the turn, and Hafs caught time and shot the last two torpedoes towards the merchant fleet.

"Very good!" Hafs shouted, "Put away the periscope, dive down to 40 meters, and turn to 90. Accelerate to 8 knots, decelerate to 1.5 knots in six minutes, and float to the depth of the periscope."

U-11 put away the periscope and began to dive. If there is no escort ship in the fleet, Hafs will continue to maintain the periscope depth and use the periscope to enjoy the beauty of the torpedo hitting the merchant ship, and even let others The crew took turns to admire it through the periscope. It is said that a captain even did the job of floating the submarine and asking the sailors to come out and cheer at the sinking enemy transport ship. Of course, this guy was later imprisoned and missed the opportunity to be promoted. So Hafs would not learn from such a guy.

And now, there are destroyers escorted by the enemy. Under these conditions, it is too dangerous to continue to maintain the depth of the periscope and to extend the periscope for sightseeing. Therefore, Hafs intends to immediately dive to a relatively safe depth and run farther quickly. At this time, safety comes first.

In the process of running away, U-11's listener heard three explosions one after another. This shows that his attack was very successful. Three of the six torpedoes successfully hit the target.

After six minutes, U-11 slowed down to reduce noise. At this time, the British destroyer should have reached the position where they launched the torpedoes just now, and they are probably listening to the surrounding sound with a listener. It is necessary to slow down and reduce the noise.

The U-11 sailed at low speed for another ten minutes, and the submarine’s listeners did not hear the peculiar churn of the destroyer’s propellers. Obviously, the British could not find them.

U-11 quietly raised the periscope to determine the outcome of the battle. Hafs saw that two ships were hit by torpedoes. One of them was a standard container freighter. The ship had already tilted sharply. Hafs was sure that it would not be long before the ship was used. Sank. As for the other boat, the situation is more serious, and its bow has been slightly lifted off the sea. The bulbous bow painted ochre red was exposed. There were still many lifeboats not far from that ship, and some ships even took the risk to reduce their speed and continuously lowered more lifeboats into the sea.

"Damn it, it looks like a passenger ship!" Hafs thought.

Just before Hafs launched an attack on the fleet, he did not see the passenger ship, it was blocked by other ships. The torpedo was actually not aimed at it to hit it, but it was hit, and depending on its current state, the ship would sink in a few minutes at most, and Hafs almost dared Sure, at least half of the people on this boat will not have time to get out...

...

Originally, a passenger ship was sunk and about two hundred civilians were killed. This was not a big deal. It is now during the Great War. Thousands of people are killed every day on the battlefield. The civilian casualties caused by the long-range artillery on both sides far exceed this number. In addition, civilians are not incapable of fighting. Most of the people killed by the German Zeppelin were also civilians. But, damn it, this ship is a passenger ship departing from the UK to the United States, and most of the passengers on the ship are from United States!

Both the British and the Germans know how decisive is the power of the United States, the world's largest industrial country, in today's situation. In this war, which side the United States people fall to, which side will inevitably win. So as soon as it happened, the British immediately jumped up and shouted "Germans slaughtered United States" or something. It also claimed that such an attack was planned for a long time, and it was aimed at the United States.

The Germans also made public the investigation results of this tragic misunderstanding in the shortest possible time. The investigation results showed that the Anne was sunk completely by accident. Who let this passenger ship be mixed in the formation of cargo ships? The Germans also unceremoniously accused that the British deliberately incorporated such a passenger ship into a cargo ship in order to induce the Germans to hit it by mistake. In order to deceive the United States people into the British thieves.

Thank you for reading this story at mtlarchive.com. Your support enables us to keep the site running!