Expedition to Europe

Just when Derek Chaplin decided to ignore those anomalies and head directly to Port Hedland, two submarines were quietly floating under the sea about two nautical miles away from the Perth, with only the periscope exposed above the water, observing the fleet of the Perth City Expeditionary Force.

These are two of the latest submarines produced by Lan Fang, numbered H-01 and H-07. "H" is the abbreviation of Port Hedland. This number only exists in the secret archives of the Lan Fang Admiralty. In Port Hedland, these two submarines are referred to as "No. 1" and "No. 7" respectively.

In the bridge of No. 1, the commander of the submarine force, Mark Franklin, is observing, and his adjutant Leon Christopher is responsible for recording.

"At 1:35 pm on the 22nd, the Pers Expeditionary Fleet passed the No. 4 observation point. There was nothing abnormal in the fleet. All 17 ships were in the fleet, with a speed of about 15 knots and a constant course. If they maintain this speed, it is estimated that the Pers Expeditionary Fleet will arrive at Port Hedland at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning." Mark observed and reported the data to Lyon.

If the Pers Expeditionary Fleet only had warships, then the speed of this fleet might be much faster, but because of the escort, even destroyers that can easily run at more than 25 knots can only maintain a cruising speed of 15 knots now.

Twenty minutes later, the expeditionary fleet gradually disappeared, and Mark ordered to start the engine and go to the next observation point.

"Sir, we don't need to be so careful. These rookies are completely unprepared. I even suspect that if we mobilize half of the submarines, we only need one attack to send these broken ships to the bottom of the sea." Lyon put away his pen and notebook, his expression and tone were relatively relaxed.

Mark and Leon were originally members of the German Navy's submarine force. After the World War, the German Navy was forced to sink all its submarines, and Mark and Leon retired from the German Navy and returned to their hometown.

Mark and Leon once thought that they would never have any intersection with the Navy again in their lives, but it didn't take long before the German Navy sent them a letter asking if they were interested in going to Lan Fang and becoming part of the Lan Fang Navy.

Mark and Leon didn't hesitate for too long. After a long talk with an officer of the German Navy, Mark and Leon came all the way from Germany to Lan Fang, successfully joined the Lan Fang Navy, and became a professional force in the Lan Fang Navy with their excellent professional qualities.

Whether in Cam Ranh Bay or Port Hedland, Mark always remembered the words of the naval officer in his heart: Maybe one day you will have the opportunity to return to the German Navy, and then you will directly join the active service without any adaptation.

It is precisely because of this belief that Mark can persist.

"Keep your vigilance and don't underestimate your opponent, otherwise you will definitely pay the price." Mark ignored Lyon's advice, which is why Mark became the commander of the submarine force and Lyon was only an adjutant.

"I don't mean to underestimate them, just because they are not worthy of my attention." Lyon did not realize his mistake and followed Mark back to the command room along the narrow passage.

No matter how large the tonnage is, the space in the submarine is always limited, so whether it is the bridge or the command room, the space is not very large, even including the passage, it can only allow one person to pass. If two people walk opposite each other, one of them must give way.

"There is a problem that must be taken seriously. If we sink this fleet at the fastest speed, it will sound the alarm for the British. At that time, it will not be these broken ships that come, but battleships that cover the sky and the sun. Do you think even if we go all out, how many ships can we sink?" As a submarine commander, Mark has enough patience and still teaches carefully.

Submarine soldiers are the most patient soldiers in the world. They stay in the narrow and depressing submarines all day long without seeing the sun, without fresh food or fresh air, and may even die in the seabed at any time due to some accidents. If they do not have excellent psychological qualities, I am afraid that just getting into this iron shell will make many people crazy.

Unlike other navies, if a submarine is attacked, the biggest possibility is that it will be sunk, and almost no one can get a chance to escape. Therefore, in Lan Fang, the treatment of submarine soldiers is the highest among all branches of the army, and it is comparable to that of carrier-based aircraft pilots.

Mark is right. Australia is still a member of the Commonwealth. If Port Hedland performs too well in the battle with Perth, then the British will definitely think that someone has intervened in this war. At that time, whether it is the Australian government or even the United Kingdom, they will dispatch naval fleets from their homeland. At that time, Mark's submarine force will be nowhere to hide.

Submarines are indeed a very powerful weapon, but they can only play their best role in specific situations. If the British dispatch enough destroyers, Mark can only stay away from Port Hedland. Not to mention direct combat, even the chance of a sneak attack is estimated to be very small.

"Battleship - I don't want to have that experience again." Hearing Mark's explanation, Leon immediately shuddered.

Lyon had participated in the harassment of the British Atlantic shipping line during the World War. At the beginning, it was quite smooth. Lyon's unit had made a lot of gains and sank many British and French merchant ships. However, with the British attaching importance to escort work and the Americans joining the war, Lyon's unit had a harder and harder time. There was even an extreme situation where there was no opportunity for a whole month. Many submarine captains ran out of patience and attacked merchant ships escorted by the army. In the end, no matter how many merchant ships they could sink, the submarines were waiting for the cold seabed.

The feeling of watching the enemy's merchant ships slip away from the eyes at the slowest speed but being helpless was really maddening.

"Then we will bypass them until they enter Port Hedland, and then we will stab the bag in." Although a little unwilling, Lyon can still obey the overall situation.

"Yes, this is our job." Mark perfunctorily recorded the results of the observation just now in the captain's log.

"I really hope the coastal defense forces don't perform so well. If they use those coastal defense guns to sink all these broken ships, then we will have worked in vain." Lyon is looking forward to the upcoming war. Soldiers are always like this.

Port Hedland still has defensive power. Although the largest caliber coastal defense gun is only 150 mm, it has some defensive effect.

Generally speaking, the naval fleet will not take the initiative to attack the port guarded by the coastal defense gun turret. Even if the guns on the warships are larger in caliber, have a longer range and greater power, the fleet commander will avoid artillery battles with the coastal defense gun turrets to reduce losses. At this time, choosing other landing sites and sending the army ashore to cooperate with the naval attack is the correct step.

However, this does not apply to the upcoming war. The artillerymen in Port Hedland are not very professional, and the commander of the Pers Expeditionary Fleet is not a serious naval officer. It is hard to say how they will fight.

No matter what, the Port Hedland submarine force will have a chance to shine. As the only fleet in Port Hedland, even if the coastal defense batteries can repel the attack of the Pers Expeditionary Force, the submarine force will be needed to finish off the attack in order to achieve the plan of completely annihilating the Pers Expeditionary Force.

"It's impossible. Even if the artillerymen perform exceptionally well, Chen will put the Persians into Port Hedland. Otherwise, the turtle will not be realized." Mark's Chinese is not very good, and his mastery of idioms needs to be improved.

The original text is in Liu # 9 @Book/Bar!

"Catching a turtle in a jar." Lyon's Chinese is good. Although the tone is not very accurate, at least he can repeat it.

"Yes, that's the word. It's a very vivid description." Mark doesn't care about his Chinese level. As long as he can reach the level of daily conversation, Mark has made up his mind to return to Germany anyway.

After the German Navy issued an initiative to go to Lan Fang, about 40,000 former German naval officers and soldiers went to Lan Fang and joined the Lan Fang Navy.

In order to win over these high-tech talents, the Lan Fang government really spent a lot of money. The daily supplies were all beyond the norm, and the treatment and welfare were also very generous. At least compared with the former German Navy, the Lan Fang Navy Department can be described as generous.

The former German Navy Department was also good, and the treatment of the submarine force was not discounted, but that was only before the war. When the war broke out, the entire Germany began to be short of supplies, which naturally affected the submarine force. Even if the German Navy Department paid more attention to these submarine soldiers, it eventually reduced the supply of supplies, which made many spoiled naval soldiers very dissatisfied. In the late war, the navy in Kiel Port had an uprising to protest against the injustice of the German Navy Department.

There will be gaps when there is a comparison. Even the German Navy before the World War was not as rich in supplies as the Lan Fang Navy Department. In comparison, many former German Navy members no longer planned to return to Germany. They directly applied to join the Lan Fang nationality and even brought their families to Lan Fang, completely becoming part of the Lan Fang Navy.

Mark was once tempted, but in the end, loyalty out of habit prevailed. Mark wanted to contribute to Germany. As long as Germany needed him, Mark would definitely return to Germany, so Mark didn't pay much attention to Chinese, which was in stark contrast to Lyon, who had spent a lot of time on Chinese recently.

Well, even if Lyon wanted to join Lanfang nationality, at least now, Lyon and Mark were still comrades-in-arms.

Under the vast sea, the two submarines gradually accelerated. After reaching the maximum speed of 17 knots, the two submarines made an arc and headed directly to Port Hedland, where more submarines were waiting for them to meet up.