1855 United States Tycoon

The champagne bottle thrown by Mrs. Woodgate drew a beautiful arc in the air, then... and then failed to hit the bow. It fell straight and smashed to pieces on the ground. Although to be honest, facing such a big ship, which is so close to the bow, it is more difficult to miss a hit than to hit it. In fact, the table where the ceremony is held is the workbench used by the workers when they work. The painter paints the boat on this platform. So the platform is very close to the bow of the ship, and Mrs. Woodgate doesn't even need to throw the bottle out, she can smash it onto the bow of the ship by holding the bottle in her hand. On the contrary, there is only a small gap between the platform and the bow, just enough to allow the bottle to fall from there. Therefore, it is not easy to accurately throw the bottle into the gap. The difficulty is not much different from that of the Chinese national football players who often perform on the opponent's goal line.

According to the rules, after the champagne was smashed, the balloon was placed immediately, and then the ship was relaxed, allowing it to slide into the sea under the influence of gravity. The release of the balloon and the descent of the ship are all controlled by a push button. The control room was a bit far away from the slipway, so the controller there only saw Mrs. Woodgate throw the bottle out, and couldn’t see the others clearly, so he pressed the button and the balloon flew. The boat slid down...

Mrs. Woodgate turned her head and saw that own husband's face didn't seem very good. Although it is the first time to do this, Mrs. Woodgate still has some knowledge about smashing champagne. She also knew that it was very unlucky for such things to happen when the ship was launched. This means that this boat will be very unlucky. Generally speaking, the crew and those related to sailing are always the most superstitious.

"My dear, I messed up." Mrs. Woodgate whispered to her husband.

"It's okay, anyway, in this war, there will always be unlucky ships." Sir Woodgate replied in a low voice. Anyway, neither he nor his wife would go to sea on this kind of cargo ship. If this ship is going to be unlucky, let it be unlucky.

So this cursed cargo ship, named the North Wind, completed its launching ceremony and began its legend.

...

More cargo ships, more destroyers have been launched, and the good times of Captain Hafs and other German submarines have gradually passed. Nowadays, except for those high-speed merchant ships that are still traveling alone, all other ships have been Under the protection of the escort fleet. At this time, a large number of destroyers using the latest active sonar produced in United States made it not only more difficult for the German submarines to launch an attack, but also made it difficult for them to get out after launching an attack. Every time, when a submarine shoots a torpedo toward the merchant fleet, it will be attacked by the destroyer almost immediately. The speed of the submarine is limited. Once it is targeted by the destroyer’s active sonar, it is difficult to get out, and it is often dropped by the destroyer in the end. The depth water bomb exploded into a pulpy.

Only two weeks after the last time Captain Hafs went to sea, he was spotted by two destroyers in an attack. In the end, relying on his old experience, Captain Hafs managed to escape with his U-92. He was born, but U-92 was also seriously damaged under the blow of depth charges. Therefore, Captain Hafs had to end Own’s attack ahead of schedule and returned to the Kiel military port.

Only two days after returning, Captain Hafs learned that in the more than one month from their last return to vacation to the damaged ship’s return, the situation at sea has undergone considerable changes. The input of destroyers with active sonar and depth charges has made the loss of the submarine force straight ascending, and it has now developed to the point where every two merchant ships are sunk, one submarine will be lost. When the U-92 submarine returned from injury, Captain Hafs and his sailors were worried that this delay would cause Captain Elson's submarine to quickly catch up and exceed its own sinking record. However, they don't need to worry now, because Captain Elson's U-35 submarine lost contact three days ago and it is estimated that it was sunk.

Captain Hafs suddenly remembered the tactics in that novel, so he wrote a very long letter to it.

...

Now Captain Hafs is already Major Hafs, and he is no longer commanding the U-92 submarine he owns. Now there is a group of 14 submarines under his command. His mission is Lead this group, cut off the route from Africa to Britain, and use this to test the feasibility of the wolf pack tactics he proposed.

Hafs divided the submarines in his hand into two teams. The first team consisted of four submarines, which were mainly responsible for reconnaissance; the second team consisted of the remaining ten submarines, which were mainly responsible for the interception mission.

Hafs put the first team in front, about two hundred nautical miles away from the second group. They will be scattered on the route, responsible for monitoring whether there is a fleet passing by, and reporting the size, speed, and course of the passing fleet to the newly established submarine warfare command center via radio. The command center then integrates this information to arrive at an optimal intercept point. Then the second team was notified, and the second team of submarines rushed to the target area under the command of Hafs, and under his command, launched an attack on the British fleet.

...

This is the first time that the North Wind cargo ship ran the route from the South African colony to the United Kingdom. A brand-new ship, a mostly new crew, and a new captain controlled the ship on this dangerous route.

But the voyage of the North Wind is simple, as long as it walks with the other twenty or so ships. It's just damn it, the North Wind was tragically placed outside when arranging seats. Obviously, it is always dangerous to be on the outside under the premise of being attacked by German submarines at any time.

"Fortunately, there are escorting warships." Andrew, who was newly appointed as the captain, said to himself as he looked at the two destroyers sailing not far away. At this time, the sun was about to sink to the bottom of the sea, and the sky was full of fiery red or deep purple clouds.

"Tomorrow will be good weather." Andrew said to himself, he was quite sure of it. But he never thought at this time, in this fleet, there are not many people who have the opportunity to see the sun tomorrow.

In fact, earlier today, this huge fleet was discovered by the first team of submarines. However, the submarine did not rush to occupy a position to launch an attack. Instead, it observed the fleet with a periscope from a distance, and after the fleet was far away, it surfaced and used the information obtained. The telegram made a report to the submarine warfare command center. So a big net has been opened in front.

When the sunset had collected the last afterglow, the stars began to shine in the deep blue sky. At first there were only a few brightest, but as time passed, the darker stars gradually appeared. , And finally the entire sky is covered with sparkling stars. At this time, the night became more intense. The blue sea disappeared during the day. It had melted and merged with the whole night and the black velvety sky. Looking around from the boat, except Except for the one or two lights on the other boats that were on to avoid collisions, nothing was visible, not even the waves splashed when the bow split the sea. They all melted in this heavy night.

But from the submarine's point of view, the situation is still a little different. In any case, the sky should be brighter than the sea. In addition, there are still one or two anti-collision lights on the cargo ships and escorting warships at night. Therefore, Hafs can barely find that this is moving towards them. From the fleet that is coming over.

Four submarines have been waiting here for a long time. According to Hafs' order, all the submarines surfaced. They were divided into two groups, and they circumscribed from the left and right sides.

Hafs' U-92 was placed on the right wing. After spotting the fleet, his submarine and several other submarines greeted the merchant fleet. Unlike the merchant fleet, there are no lights on the submarine for 100% concealment. This also made Hafs unable to see other submarines, and naturally, he couldn't give any instructions to these submarines. But now, there is no need to issue any instructions. The only instruction has been issued, and that is: "After discovering the enemy fleet, immediately outflank it and launch an attack."

Hafs stared at a merchant ship, from the submarine's perspective, the ship was set against the stars, as if sailing in a sea of ​​stars.

Hafs roughly estimated the distance and angle, and then gave the command: "No. 1, Torpedo No. 2 tube, launch!"

Two torpedoes shot at the ship, Hafs ordered the submarine to turn in another direction, and then he began to count in his mind: "In another minute or so, the torpedo should hit it." Captain Si thought so. It's just that there was nothing dark on the sea, so he couldn't see the tracks of the torpedoes.

Dozens of seconds passed, and the explosion did not occur. "Damn it, it was hit crooked, and none of them hit." Hafs cursed.

At this time, on the Northwind, the sailor on duty heard a sound on the side of the ship, as if something had hit the ship. It's just that the sailor can't see anything, the sailor thought, maybe a hapless sea turtle was hit by our boat.

In fact, it was a torpedo launched by U-92 that hit the Northwind. But I don’t know why, this torpedo didn’t explode. It smashed into a small hole in the ship’s side of the North Wind and inserted into it, because this small hole was basically blocked by the torpedo itself, so There was not much water leaking in, and it didn't attract attention. It was not until dawn that the sailors discovered this, and each of them was frightened in cold sweat.

The other torpedo did not deviate much. This torpedo swept past the tail of the North Wind, then was affected by the wake, turned around, and then traversed the entire fleet. Finally, it hit an escorting destroyer on the other side of the fleet, and exploded the small warship of less than 1,000 tons into two pieces on the spot. But when Hafs made the judgment that the torpedo did not hit, the torpedo was swimming through the entire formation.

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