Battle of the Third Reich

The sinking of the Adriana was much faster than estimated by the German Command Intelligence Agency.

Three hundred kilograms of plastic zha medicine placed in the valuable luggage storeroom on the third deck tore a fifteen meter long and eight meter wide opening in the hull near the waterline under the bridge, and a huge shock wave instantly blew the luggage storeroom Seven watertight doors around, the turbulent seawater filled the three cabins connected to the luggage storage in thirty seconds, and the huge cruise ship immediately tilted five degrees to the right.

Seawater flooded into this 10,000-ton* cabin like a floodwater that collapsed into the embankment. Before the huge watertight gate was lowered, it poured into the three huge boiler cabins on the bottom.

The unprepared sailors swarmed to escape. The regular entrances and exits have turned into huge waterfalls, and more than a hundred crew members congested around the four narrow escape ladders.

Two minutes and fifteen seconds after the explosion, seawater had begun to pour into the engine room, and the three steam turbines began to relieve pressure. With the screaming and deafening howling, the steam was pouring out of the chimney of the cruise ship like a volcanic eruption According to the observation report of the German submarine, the steam plume ejected by the Adriana was as high as 1,200 meters.

After a few more minutes, a boiler in the No. 3 boiler cabin that did not have time to shut down the furnace temperature observation port was flooded with seawater. Although it did not cause a catastrophic boiler explosion, it produced a large amount of suffocating poisonous steam.

This made the group of crew members who climbed on the escape ladder like ants climb more frantically, struggling for the final escape opportunity.

The Adriana completely lost power after evacuating the last point of pressure in the steam pipe, when the ship's roll had reached twelve degrees.

The explosion happened so suddenly that the violent shock knocked everyone down on the bridge.

The first reaction in Captain Cooper’s mind was that the German torpedo was in his ship, but when he roared and blamed the six lookout sailors on both sides of the bridge, everyone vowed to God that he did not see the neighborhood before the explosion occurred. There are any torpedo tracks.

The experienced Cooper estimated from the scale of the previous explosion that his ship must have been hit hard.

But at this time, he was still holding the hope that the Adriana could rely on her huge tonnage to survive the disaster.

Unfortunately, reality is often cruel. Just as Cooper was about to ask the damage management department about the damage to the ship, an emergency call was already made on the three decks where the outbreak occurred. Several cabins near the starboard waterline have been flooded, and the water volume is quite large, it is impossible to control.

Within a few minutes, reports of water inflow from the bottom compartments were reported one after another. Cooper had already felt at this time that Adriana could not be guaranteed.

"Abandon ship!"

Cooper issued an order to abandon the ship.

"Observe, Captain. Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"

The three men who were waiting aside immediately reached out to report the death.

With the long and bleak whistle sounding, the whole cruise liner was suddenly confused like a pot of boiling porridge.

Adriana uploaded 1,327 passengers and more than 350 crew members at all levels. Most of the passengers were refugees who fled the United States from Spain through Europe, and some went to the British colonies. Of officers and officials, including one abdicated king and two retired generals.

"You go to the first-class deck in person and you must let the Duke and his subordinates get on the first lifeboat."

Kubera asked three whispers.

"Understood, Captain."

The third officer nodded vigorously, saluted Cooper and walked out of the bridge quickly.

The cruise ship continued to lean, hopelessly, and the deck was already full of crying passengers. Due to the American-style sense of justice of the lower cabin attendants, passengers in the bottom cabins all climbed to the third-class deck, which is closer to the lifeboat deck. This kind of benevolent behavior that is blameless in the eyes of ordinary Americans has seriously affected the rescue at this time.

"Don't squeeze, come one by one, we have enough lifeboats to let women and children go first!"

The senior crew roared with their horns, and the sailors slowly led the lifeboat sling to the outboard under the leadership of their respective team leaders.

The tragedy of Titanic has only passed for less than thirty years. The yin shadow of the tragedy has not dissipated from the hearts of the people at that time. The passengers scrambled to climb the lifeboat that had not left the deck.

Most of the refugees here are at the bottom of society, and there is no concept of gentleman spirit in these people.

The first to climb the lifeboat is often the strong men. The American crew is at a disadvantage. The unarmed crew cannot control this disgusting situation at all.

When they found that it was impossible for those men to give up their seats again, they had no choice but to let it go. The crew can only try to put the women and children who are lucky to be close to themselves into the lifeboat in the concept of how much they can save.

"Try to put down the lifeboat on the port side first, tilt it like this, the lifeboat hanger on the left will soon be unusable! Throw all the simple lifeboats on the port side, and the life buoy is the same! Let the newspaper office continue to send a distress signal to all nearby Of ships calling for help!"

Cooper stood on the bridge and issued orders aloud.

"Immediately signaled the British destroyer to let her assist the rescue immediately."

"Captain! That destroyer is leaving!"

The signal hand shouted loudly.

"what!"

Cooper stepped to the starboard side in two steps. The scene in front of him made Cooper hardly believe his eyes. The British destroyer was turning and speeding away.

"The bastards! Are they crazy!"

The British warship faced a sinking American cruise ship and died. Is today the end of the world? Are you crazy?

Cooper could not suppress his anger, he stood beside the bridge fence and roared loudly at the British destroyer that had ran five kilometers away.

"You British cowards, God will punish you! I will sue you! I will curse you! Bastard!"

He threw his fist hard at the opponent, feeling that it was not enough to vent his angry Cooper, and threw his captain's cap outboard.

"This group of **** British cowards, they must be afraid of being attacked by German submarines when they rescue us. If I can return to the United States, I will accuse the cowardly and shameless behavior of their cowards to the world!"

Cooper said angrily to the signal soldier.

"I will testify for you by then, Captain."

The signal hand spit hard at the distant ship shadow.

The evacuation is still in chaos. At this time, the only thing that made the crew feel a little comforted is that probably because of the full water in the bilge, Adriana's roll that can drive people crazy has miraculously stopped. .

However, because the roll has reached 20 degrees, the lifeboat hanger on the port side is no longer usable. Finally, most of the lifeboats on the port side have been put into the sea. Although there are still two that haven't had time to launch, for the Adriana, where there are plenty of life-saving equipment, this waste is theoretically affordable.

This boat hasn't been able to persist for long, and Cooper knew it.

The temporary stability of the hull is not a good thing, which shows that the center of gravity of the ship is declining. The bottom cabin has been filled, and the seawater is spreading towards the upper cabin. The ship may roll over quickly and sink to the bottom of the sea at any time.

The evacuation operation has been started for half an hour, and the deck is still full of crying passengers. At least 40% of the passengers did not board the lifeboat.

What worries Cooper even more is that many of the lifeboats on the port side are eager to lay down before the hanger fails, and many of them are not fully loaded at all, which makes the number of lifeboats remaining on board and the number of remaining passengers on board. There was a big gap suddenly.

"Captain! German submarine! Just on our starboard side!"

The signal hand shouted loudly again.

Cooper quickly ran to the side bridge and looked at it. A submarine painted with black and white pieces of camouflage slowly emerged from the sea less than 100 meters on the starboard side of Adriana. The shield emblem on the command tower was clearly visible. .

"What do these Germans want to do? Are they going to kill them? These are innocent civilians."

Thinking of the rumors about German submarines seen in the newspaper, Cooper looked desperately at the wet killing machine in front of him.

The submarine stopped there quietly, and then three or four figures appeared on the control tower. A German navy flag was quickly raised on the pole of the control tower.

"Captain! They are signaling to us that they are preparing to come and rescue us..."

"I saw...."

Cooper watched dumbly as a dozen German sailors climbed onto the submarine deck to quickly inflate an inflatable lifeboat.

"It seems that today is really the end of the world."

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Snow-white Florentine engraving tablecloth, seventeenth-century royal blue brown earthenware dinner plate inlaid with sterling silver lace, cream-roasted shrimp exudes an attractive aroma, and the crystal cup of King Louis is filled with precious boils Burgundy. On the freshly baked French white bread in the rattan bread basket, the grains of salt are crystal clear like snowflakes.

Under the bright and charming candlelight of the nine vine silver candlestick in the middle of the dining table, the imperial ducái raised his knife and fork gracefully.

"Don't worry so much, dear Wehrler. Everything is still under our control, isn't it?"

Xu Jun forkd a small piece of pink shrimp, dipped it in the milky sauce on the side of the plate, and then put it into his mouth.

"My head, I don’t want to worry about anything. As you said, everything is under our control. I just feel a little doubt now whether a king who has gone down can continue to have the loyalty of his subjects. We Is there a need to take such a huge risk for such a person."

Weierle put down his knife and fork and answered with a respectful bow.

"My Excellency Wehrler, I think that if you want to know the value of this former king, just look at the reaction of the British Prime Minister. According to my personal guess, the fat man may be pulling him in his small basement. Your hair is worried."

As Dogen talked, he happily cut the prawns on the plate, and Xu Jun quickly picked up his glass and greeted his rare humorous adjutant.