Chapter 277: Attacked

Otto Kretschmer raised his periscope and looked at the sea, but what he saw was pitch black. Because of the weather, the plane couldn't take off as usual and dropped flares to point them to the target.

In 1941, Germany had three ace captains. Their high performance at that time astonished other captains. The three of them were very famous in the country. But at the same time in 1941, these three aces died one after another. Two of them were buried in the sea with their U-boats, and one was captured. The captured one was Otto Kretschmer.

Otto was Germany's number one ace in submarine warfare. He sank a total of 47 ships, totaling 208,869 tons. Ranked first among all U-boat captains in World War II.

Kretschmer deeply understood the key to submarine warfare. He usually kept silent and rarely spoke. When performing missions at sea, the submarines under his command rarely sent telegrams. He was known as "Silent Otto". And he was so bold and careful that he dared to break into the convoys of the Allies and became the most dangerous sea wolf. He launched close-range attacks from the water and cherished torpedoes very much. His famous saying was "One torpedo, one ship." .

His will is stronger than steel. After an assault on the convoy, the U-99 he commanded was captured by a British frigate and conducted a continuous attack for about 20 hours. About 136 depth bombs were dropped continuously, each time It was like thousands of big hammers hitting the hull of the boat at the same time. The crew members were terrified, but he asked everyone to put on breathing masks and lie down to sleep to save oxygen, while he read quietly with a detective novel, letting it go again and again. The huge shock made the surrounding crew members extremely admired, showing extremely high leadership skills. (It was later discovered that he had taken down all his books, just to show them to everyone and calm the morale of the army)

After turning around in a circle, Kretschmer gave up the idea of ​​​​looking for the target visually; the British were not stupid, and they would not run around with lights on even if they had a ship. "It seems we can only use our secret weapon. Sonar officer, do you have a target?"

The sonar operator immediately reported. "Captain, ten degrees ahead, about 5,000 meters away from east to west, it seems to be a large cruise ship."

From east to west, that is the ship returning to England from Dunkirk. "Large cruise ship? These British guys really know how to pick their timing. It must be full of British guys, right? In the torpedo room, what's the situation with torpedo No. 3 and No. 4?"

"Report, the torpedo is in good condition and ready for launch."

"The engine switches to electric drive!! Torpedo No. 3 and No. 4 are launched!!"

"Bang! Bang!" As the torpedo hand pressed the launch wrench hard, two T5 modified torpedoes rushed out of the launch tube and plunged straight into the water.

Under the action of the internal engine mechanism with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant, the propeller driven by a piston kerosene engine rotated at high speed at an extremely low volume. With the power of rushing out of the torpedo tube, the nearly six-meter-long 533mm diameter standard body was pushed faster and faster, and it accelerated to nearly 30 knots in a short time. The sound induction mechanism on the head made it immediately discover the person running at full speed. Cruise ship, dive into it without hesitation!

"Sound induction mechanism", which is why Kretschmer deliberately changed the engine to electric drive before launching the torpedo. This new batch of T5-modified torpedoes are all new gadgets that use sound homing systems. Unfortunately, the self-guiding systems of this era are not very smart. Engineers warned them that they are strictly prohibited from launching such acoustic torpedoes when the engine is driven by diesel. The huge noise of the diesel engine may interfere with the torpedo's navigation system, causing them to circle around and come back. Destroy the launcher.

This is a bit scary. Being hit by a torpedo shot by oneself would be a very uncomfortable death.

Therefore, the captains assigned to this new type of torpedo all strictly abide by the launch regulations.

Just then the sonar man reported again. "A high-speed destroyer is following behind the cruise ship! It will be parallel to the cruise ship soon!"

Destroyer? Kretschmer frowned, thinking that he could kill the big fish with his secret weapon for the first time. Why did a destroyer come out? How many people can fit into a destroyer? If this destroyer interferes with the torpedoes, it will really be a bit of a loss.

"Hurry up and reload torpedoes!!" I urged him out of habit, but today's submarines are not equipped with electric hoists or hydraulic rods of later generations. It would take more than ten minutes to reload a torpedo no matter how fast it is. After reloading the new sound-guided torpedo, the cruise ship should run away.

The six-meter-long thing rushed towards the target at high speed like a shark, but it found a louder sound signal appeared in front, and the torpedo's pendulum control system began to adjust its direction to align itself with the new target.

But that destroyer had a 44,000-horsepower steam turbine and was racing forward at a high speed of 35 knots. After chasing for a certain distance, the torpedo acoustic guidance system found that the target's sound signal was getting weaker and weaker, and was soon replaced by the previous target. The pendulum control system adjusted its direction again, locked the cruise ship again, and slammed into it.

"Boom! Boom!"

The first torpedo hit the propeller of the rapidly rotating cruise ship and exploded violently!

In less than two seconds, the second torpedo also hit.

The slender stern of the ship was blown up for several meters on the spot like a dough ball of steel. The propeller system and stern rudder were ripped off the ship in an instant. The huge explosion force pushed the cruise ship forward violently, and added Under the squeeze from the front, it was like the two giant hands of a skyscraper coming together, forcibly lifting half of the cruise ship out of the water. Then the rear keel twisted and snapped, and the riveted steel plates kept breaking and the rivets bounced hard. Open, "boom boom" like bullets and cannonball fragments flying in all directions!

The worst were the people on the stern of the cruise ship. Under the double squeeze of the shock waves generated by the two huge explosions, their internal organs burst and shattered first. Then, as the ship twisted and deformed, the whole person was squeezed into pieces of meat paste by the steel. In just a few seconds, no one survived except for the boiler room at the innermost part!

"What happened?!" Montgomery rushed to the deck of the destroyer after hearing the explosion, and looked at the back of the fire in astonishment.

The deputy captain who ran to the deck earlier shouted. "The cruise ship exploded! It must be a German submarine!" Such a huge explosion must be either a mine or a torpedo, nothing else!

"Save people!" Montgomery shouted without thinking.

The deputy captain refused very straightforwardly. "Can't stop! If we stop, we will be finished!"

"Stop and save people immediately!!" Montgomery grabbed the other's collar and roared at the top of his voice. His eyes were bloodshot, and he roared with gnashing teeth, as if he wanted to swallow the deputy captain. "There are more than 7,000 wounded on board! Stop and save them immediately!" The deputy captain insisted stubbornly. "Sir, this is Commander Gort's last order. No matter what happens, our ship cannot stop. We must ensure the safety of everyone on board!" "Boom! Boom!" Just as Montgomery raised his fist to beat this guy, a more violent explosion came from the back. The fire caused by the cruise ship explosion allowed Krezimer to see the target clearly, and he immediately fired two more conventional torpedoes. With the sky-high fire of the explosion, Krezimer vaguely saw the destroyer going away, but the torpedo tube had not yet been loaded with new torpedoes, and the speed could not catch up with the destroyer, so he could only give up the pursuit plan in disappointment.