Chapter 191 Scapa Flow
Yannick originally wanted to imitate the attack on Pearl Harbor and give the Scapa Flow naval base a hard blow, but the navy's surface fleet was not up to the task, so he could only rely on underwater submarines to complete this important task. Fortunately, he made two preparations. He discussed the attack plan with Dönitz a few years ago and conducted special training.
But to be precise, it should be a three-handed preparation. If the submarine attack failed, he would send the Air Force and Army Air Force bombers to attack. But in that case, the loss of the fleet should not be small, and the bombing effect may not be guaranteed.
Finally, just a week ago, the U-47 submarine loaded with secret weapons set off from Kiel Harbor.
They followed the carefully planned route in advance and sailed to the North Sea via Wilhelmshaven, where they changed course to the south and sailed submerged to avoid being discovered by surface ships. They hid during the day and came out at night, sailing underwater during the day and surfacing at night.
It was completely dark, and the U-47, which had sailed underwater for a day relying on navigation maps and calculations, finally surfaced and began to adjust the route. The submarine sailors also took the opportunity to climb onto the deck for a short break. The fishy and cool sea breeze blew in their faces, the sea was foggy, and the sound of waves rose and fell.
Even at night, the North Atlantic was still not calm. The submarine swayed left and right with the waves. After all, this was a warship of less than 1,000 tons, and it was impossible for it to have the seaworthiness of a surface warship of tens of thousands of tons. At least at this stage, a submarine is just a diving ship, not a submerged ship.
"What a nice day." Prien held a cigarette in his mouth and muttered quietly while looking at the bright stars in the sky. They were very close to Scapa Flow. This was the last time they would surface to rest in this mission, and the rest of the voyage would be completed in dangerous waters.
Of course, this might also be the last time they would surface in their lives.
Touching his greasy hair, he shook off this unlucky thought. Several days of sailing had left him with a beard, and his hair was quite greasy, as if he could squeeze out a few drops of oil by twisting it. You should know that fresh water is particularly precious on the boat during long voyages. The taps are managed by special people. In addition to drinking water, submarine soldiers use teacups as the unit of measurement for washing their faces and brushing their teeth. They often wipe their faces with a towel dipped in a little water after brushing their teeth. So shaving, washing hair and taking a bath are just a luxury.
After the short wind-up time, the sailors returned to the submarine one by one. Prien habitually looked around and was the last one to go in after confirming that there were no problems. "Dive to a depth of 30 meters and maintain the course. Turn off the main lighting power after 5 minutes."
After more than seven hours of sailing, the submarine finally arrived at the entrance of the Kirk Channel at about 1 a.m. the next day. "Attention everyone! We are at risk of being sunk every minute! Everyone be ready for battle!"
According to the intelligence collected previously, it is extremely difficult to enter Scapa Flow through the Kirk Channel and it is almost impossible to penetrate. In order to prevent submarine attacks, the water in the channel, which is less than one kilometer wide, is densely covered with many man-made shipwrecks and other underwater obstacles.
However, because of this, the defense here is relatively lax, so Dönitz chose this route, and the U-47 submarine is sailing along this route.
The so-called "extremely difficult" is not just talk. A strong tide flows into Scapa Flow from here. The U-47 trapped in the tide is like a canoe falling into a rapids, swaying. U-47 not only has to fight against this current, but also has to try its best to avoid collisions between the submarine and underwater obstacles. The most dangerous time was when everyone heard the sound of the bottom of the submarine hull colliding with the mooring cable laid on the seabed. This collision almost caused the submarine to run aground. If Prien had not ordered to empty the water tank in time and float up urgently, I am afraid they would have to explain here.
Just like walking on the edge of a knife, after experiencing several life-and-death moments, they finally entered Scapa Flow.
"God bless!" Prien breathed a long sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his face.
"Maybe it's the spirits of our ancestors who have blessed us." The first mate, who was holding the handrail and breathing heavily, continued.
Prien nodded. "It's time to avenge them." Then he walked to the periscope and observed the situation outside.
"Oh, good guys!" Prien couldn't help but exclaimed. What he saw was an extremely large fleet. Although it was late at night and he couldn't see what kind of warships they were, just looking at the huge figures of the warships, he knew that they were at least 20,000 to 30,000 tons.
He immediately gave an order excitedly. "Prepare for action!"
He said prepare for action, not prepare to launch torpedoes, because this time they were not going to use submarine torpedoes, but secret weapons, "man-operated torpedoes".
Speaking of "man-operated torpedoes", the most famous one should be the "Kaiten" man-operated torpedo of a certain island country.
This "Kaiten" man-operated torpedo is modified from the Type 93 oxygen torpedo. It has a diameter of 1 meter and can carry 1 crew member inside the torpedo. The crew member uses a small periscope to confirm the position of the enemy ship and operate the torpedo. The amount of explosives loaded on the Kaiten reached 36 tons, which is three times more than that of an ordinary torpedo.
In November 1945, the first batch of "Kaiten" was carried to the combat sea area by submarine motherships, ready to attack the US fleet. Unexpectedly, the US anti-submarine force was very strong. Before the torpedo motherships could release the "Kaiten", they were hit and exploded one after another. Only a few rushed towards the US ships, but under the fierce fire of the US warships, only one US oil tanker was sunk in the anchorage.
However, what is less known is that the first to develop manned torpedoes were Italians, and they successfully developed and put them into use as early as the end of World War I, blowing up the flagship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the "United Force", but this was meaningless to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which surrendered three days later.
These Italians were quite persistent and kept tinkering with their manned torpedoes. In 1935, they designed a large-scale manned torpedo, which was called "slow torpedo", and later became more famous as "Pig" (Maiale). Because it looks like a swimming pig and is easy to be manipulated. Two crew members can ride on the torpedo body of the "Pig". The main power source of the "Pig" is a 1-horsepower electric motor. 30 60-volt battery packs are installed between the two crew members and at the rear. It can travel 4 miles at 5 knots and 15 miles at 3 knots.
German engineers have improved this torpedo. The total length of the torpedo body is 5 meters longer than the original version, reaching 8 meters; the original version is an 8-meter-long tactical bomb head with a charge of 300 kilograms, while the German version has been improved to a 2-meter-long 350-kilogram tactical bomb head; the battery capacity has also been greatly improved.
This time they brought four of these torpedo bodies, or more appropriately, thrusters. These four thrusters are fixed to the outer shell of the submarine on both sides. They will have to climb out of the submarine later, first untie these four thrusters, and then fix the tactical bomb head pushed out from the torpedo launch port on the thrusters, then approach the enemy ship, remove the tactical bomb head and fix it to the bottom of the ship, set a timer to explode, and finally retreat with the remaining thrusters.