Chapter 551: Tooth for Tooth
"Commander, I have something to report to you." The door of the ward was quietly pushed open, and General Ernest's adjutant whispered.
General Ernest was about to get up, and President Roosevelt waved his hand weakly. "What's the matter? Just say it directly. There's no need to hide."
The adjutant hesitated for a moment, walked to the bed, and spoke carefully. "Just now, the New York Coast Guard sent a message that an oil tanker near New York Harbor exploded."
"What?!" General Ernest stood up suddenly and said anxiously. "Is it a German submarine?!"
The adjutant shook his head. "It's not certain yet. There are many ships coming and going there, and only an oil tanker exploded. Uh, there was also a passenger ship affected by the explosion of the oil tanker and was not spared. Apart from these two, there was nothing else."
"It's no wonder it's a German submarine." Roosevelt coughed violently, and it took a long time for him to catch his breath, and he said word by word. "General Ernest, we must fight back. Send our submarine forces to Europe to fight immediately."
"..."General Ernest couldn't help but look embarrassed.
If we look back, the United States is one of the first countries to put submarines into actual combat.
As early as the American War of Independence in 1776, submarines first appeared on the battlefield. With the support of General Washington, David Bushnell, a patriotic graduate of Yale University in the United States, began to study the method of using submarines to attack the British army. The famous "Turtle" boat in the history of submarine development was born.
The "Turtle" boat looks like a turtle, and the air in the boat can be breathed by the driver for half an hour; there are also two snorkels on the upper part of the boat, which are opened when floating and closed when diving, so that fresh air can be replenished. In order to control the buoyancy and sinking of the submarine, a ballast water tank is set in the boat, and the water in the water tank is controlled by a hand pump. In order to cope with emergencies, a 90-kilogram iron block is installed in the boat. In critical moments, as long as the iron block is thrown away, the submarine can quickly float up. The movement of the "Turtle" boat is controlled by two human-driven propellers in the horizontal and vertical directions. The weapon is a 68-kilogram explosive pack hanging outside the hull, which should be hung on the hull of the enemy ship during the attack. Even from today's perspective, this is also a well-designed underwater weapon.
Unfortunately, the attack of the "Turtle" boat was not successful. On September 7, 1776, the first submarine attack in history began, which was carried out by Sergeant Ezra Lee. He drove the "Turtle" boat successfully to the tail of the British battleship "Eagle". The next job was to use a drill to drill holes in the enemy ship to fix the explosive pack. However, the place where he drilled happened to be a metal plate. After half an hour, he still did not drill through the enemy ship, so he had to float back.
Although the "Turtle" did not achieve any results, it opened the prelude to submarine combat. Since then, the battlefield of mankind has also developed from land and water to underwater. The "Turtle" has also won the reputation of "the first military submarine" in the world with its design principle that is the same as that of modern submarines, and has occupied a place in the history of the development of submarines in the world.
The first submarine in military history to achieve definite results was also an American submarine, the Hunley submarine.
Its appearance is similar to the "dolphin shape", and the cross-section diagram is designed to be elliptical. The total length is about 12 meters, and the height of the submarine is 2 meters. It needs to be operated by 8 people at the same time, and the propeller is driven by a hand-cranked transmission device to realize the power drive of the submarine.
As for the sinking and floating operation, since it is equipped with a real pressurized water tank, when the valve is opened and water enters the cabin, it can sink. When floating, it is necessary to use a manual hand-cranked water pump to drain water and realize the floating operation.
In terms of the weapons equipped by the submarine, it is quite primitive and cannot be compared with modern precision information weapons. The Hunley submarine adopts the design concept of a rod-type torpedo, with a 6-meter-long "stick" installed on the head of the submarine. The other end of the "stick" carries more than 40 kilograms of explosives to attack the side of the enemy ship.
During the fierce stalemate of the American Civil War, the military confrontation at sea was also quite intense. At 9 o'clock in the evening on February 17, 1864, the Hunley submarine lurking underwater suddenly attacked the enemy ship "Housatonick" and sank it in one fell swoop, creating world history. But then the Hunley mysteriously disappeared, and it was not until 2000 that it was salvaged.
After many simulation experiments, experts concluded that the submarine was "sunk" by itself. It turned out that the long rod equipped with explosives in the submarine was too short. At the time of the explosion, the submarine was only 6 meters away from the explosion point. The violent shock wave severely damaged the internal organs of the crew, blood quickly filled the lungs, and the crew died soon...
So far, this submarine has created many records: the first submarine to achieve results; the first submarine to sink a submarine; the first submarine to sink itself...
Starting with the "Barracuda" class that entered service in 1921, American submarines officially adopted the tradition of naming after aquatic animals: "Argonaut" class, "Narwhal" class, "Dolphin" class, "Sperm Whale" class, "Porpoise" class, "Salmon" class, "Heavy Toothed Snapper" class, "Puffer" class, "Mackerel" class...
However, since World War I, the US Navy has gradually reduced its attention to submarines, and the submarines built are also built with the mentality that others have them, and they are mainly used as scouts of the main fleet, called "fleet submarines". Of course, in the vast Pacific Ocean, submarines with a displacement of only one or two thousand tons and using fuel-efficient diesel engines when sailing on the surface are indeed very suitable reconnaissance platforms.
By early December 1941, on the eve of the Pearl Harbor incident, the US Pacific Fleet had only 6 V-class, 3 P-class and 12 newer Puffer-class submarines, a total of 21 submarines, of which only 11 could be put into combat immediately; the Philippines' Asian Fleet also had only 23 large submarines and 6 S-class small submarines.
Later, relying on its extremely strong industrial strength, the United States built a total of 77 Catshark-class submarines, as well as 128 improved Balau-class submarines and 29 Tench-class submarines. As a result, the submarines were built too quickly, and the US Navy encountered a happy trouble: they couldn't think of the names of so many marine creatures! So they had to find some marine biologists and fishermen to help name the submarines.
Not long ago, the US Congress enacted the "Two Oceans Navy Act", which greatly expanded the navy and submarine forces.
The keel of the first new generation of Catshark-class (small shark-class) submarines began to be laid. The North Atlantic Fleet was full of old submarines. What could they use to travel thousands of kilometers to attack the European coastline?
But facing President Roosevelt's expectant eyes, General Ernest could only bite the bullet and agree. "Yes, I'll prepare immediately."
Back at the Navy Department in the Pentagon, General Ernest found Major General Lockwood, the commander of the North Atlantic Fleet's submarines.
Major General Lockwood has always insisted on using submarines as an independent combat force, but now when he heard that General Ernest wanted to send submarines to Europe for combat, he shook his head. "Impossible, our current submarines don't have this capability at all."
General Ernest said seriously with a stern face. "I didn't ask you to come here to listen to you saying it's too difficult or impossible. There is no difficulty in the world that cannot be overcome. If the Germans can do it, we can do it too. I'll give you a week to prepare, and the submarine will set sail in a week."