Chapter 564: Wire-Guided Torpedo

Just as the US destroyer was searching for the submarine with gnashing teeth, the Tiger Shark submarine had already dived to a depth of 50 meters in the channel.

Here, it is naturally impossible to lock the target with a periscope, and only rely on sonar.

Soon, the sonar operator heard a target. "Captain, 2,000 meters ahead, it's a big guy, at least 30,000 tons."

"Torpedo No. 1 is launched. After launching, load the wire-guided torpedo."

Although acoustic-guided torpedoes are very useful in this situation, Yannick strictly prohibits the frequent use of acoustic-guided torpedoes.

Because once the United States masters the characteristics of this acoustic-guided torpedo, it will be easy to find a way to deal with it. In the original time and space, not long after Germany put the T5 acoustic-guided torpedo into actual combat, the weapons experts of the Allied countries proposed 14 countermeasures; the general idea is "to create a greater noise than the noise where the warships are located in the place where the warships are not, so as to disturb the sight and hearing." After the noise maker they made was launched, the acoustic mines were induced to pass through one noise maker after another until they left the target area.

Therefore, in a battle, unless you are sure to annihilate the enemy, you can only use two acoustic-guided torpedoes at most to avoid the secret of this weapon being leaked.

"Boom!"

The torpedo hit the stern of the freighter hard, blowing a big hole. Seawater rushed into the ship frantically from this big hole. Fortunately, the damage control of this ship was well-trained, and they risked their lives to close the doors of several watertight compartments, and finally stopped the water from entering. Although the hull has tilted slightly, as long as the seawater in the ship is drained with a pump, it can be restored to balance. It's just that the propeller was blown away, so we can only wait for the tugboat to come and tow it away.

Three freighters were attacked in a row, and the entire channel exploded.

"What are you bastards doing?! Why don't you find those damn submarines?!"

"We work hard to earn money and pay taxes to support useless rubbish like you?!"

"It's better to raise a dog than rubbish like you!"

All kinds of unbearable curses filled the public frequency band, cursing the surrounding destroyers.

"!! "After turning around for a long time, Brady's anger value has reached MAX. Now he heard these curses, and his whole body was shaking with anger, and the anger in his eyes seemed to burst out. "Sonar operator! Did you find it!" The tone sounded like he would tear him to pieces if the sonar operator answered that he didn't find it.

The sonar operator replied tremblingly. "Sir, at 14 degrees to the port side, 50 meters away, and 70 depth, I found a strange sound, not too strong, I'm not sure if it's a submarine." He repeatedly confirmed what he heard. Based on his experience, it should not be a submarine, but more like a whale. But at this time, he dared not say that he had not found anything, and could only give a target vaguely.

Sure enough, after hearing the sonar operator's discovery, Brady's eyes lit up and he immediately ordered the launch of depth charges.

As early as 1915, Britain developed the first depth charge, which looked like a metal can for garbage, filled with explosives, equipped with a hydraulic fuse and a trigger fuse. Depth charges were originally thrown into the water by surface ships and could explode when they touched submarines or at a predetermined depth. The huge pressure generated by the explosion could cause serious damage to submarines 10 meters away, and the effective depth could reach 200 meters.

Following Brady's order, the K-type depth charge launcher installed on the destroyer (which could throw depth charges 50-100 meters away from the ship's side) threw depth charges one by one at the target.

A row of depth charges hit, accompanied by a series of explosions in the sea, and the sonar also failed. The sound waves generated by the explosion of depth charges took more than ten minutes to dissipate, and the sonar became deaf during this period.

The sonar operator took off his headphones and rubbed his aching ears, and couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Even if the German submarine cannot be found after more than ten minutes, it can be said that it escaped in the chaos.

In the Tiger Shark submarine, the sonar operator reported to Krezimer. "Captain, the other destroyer has dropped depth charges, more than 1,500 meters away."

"This bunch of idiots." Krezimer shook his head in disdain. Are they anxious? Just find a place to drop depth charges?

At this time, the torpedo compartment reported that the wire-guided torpedo had been loaded.

Wire-guided torpedoes are the latest new torpedoes equipped. This time the supply ship brought them two.

Wire-guided, as the name suggests, is to transmit information through the wire between the torpedo and the launch platform. Before the general torpedo is launched, the target's direction, speed and other shooting parameters must be entered before it can be launched; while the wire-guided torpedo can find the approximate direction of the target and launch it first, and then the launch platform controls its course, speed, depth and attitude until it hits the target.

In the field of missiles, this correction is generally done by radio. However, in the ocean, because the salty liquid seawater is too conductive, the radio signal is absorbed and attenuated too much, and it cannot be used at all.

The wire-guided torpedo in the original time and space was first invented by the Germans in World War II, named "Skylark" torpedo. After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union developed their own wire-guided torpedo family on this basis. Early wire-guided torpedoes used copper wires with a diameter of less than 5MM wrapped in an insulating layer, but this wire was too heavy. The weight of 100 kilometers of wire exceeded 50 kilograms, and some even reached 100 kilograms.

Fortunately, optical fiber has entered mass production at this time. The use of optical fiber wires greatly reduces the load of torpedoes and improves maneuverability. When launching a torpedo, the wires connected to the launch platform and the torpedo are released at the same time, and the wires are continuously released as the torpedo moves forward, so that the wires are always suspended in the water and are basically unstressed.

"Fire!"

The wire-guided torpedo accurately hit the freighter that had lost power and could not move.

Hearing the sonar operator report that the freighter was sinking, the first mate said excitedly. "This should be recorded. We have achieved the first actual combat hit of a wire-guided torpedo in human history."

Krezimer nodded. "Yes, it's worth recording. It's a good thing." Using wire-guided torpedoes can save the submarine from risking its life to seize the position, so the survivability of the submarine is naturally improved. And the most important thing is that compared with the acoustic-guided torpedoes that are easily interfered with, the wire-guided torpedo has a much stronger anti-interference ability-or in other words, there is no possibility of being interfered by the enemy at all.

Many ships on the channel turned around and fled from this terrible place. As a result, the originally busy channel was instantly in chaos, and even several cargo ships could not avoid it and collided with each other.

Now the public frequency band on the channel is even more lively. From the initial personal attacks, it has risen to greeting the female family members of the destroyer crew members (mainly the destroyer captain), and even the dog of the other party was not spared and was insulted dozens of times.

Ordinary people could not stand being scolded like this, let alone hot-blooded soldiers. Soon, the public frequency band became a battlefield for scolding. Some hot-tempered destroyer captains even turned their guns to scare the cargo ships, and the situation was out of control for a while.