Chapter 814 Argentina (4)

Seeing so many German ships, Captain Brian of the Little Shark-class submarine immediately issued a combat order.

The "Little Shark"-class submarine is a conventional-powered submarine built by the United States during World War II and was also the main submarine of the US Navy during World War II.

The external configuration of this class of submarines is still quite traditional, basically maintaining the appearance of the submarines of World War I. The length of the boat is 95 meters, the width is 3 meters, the draft is 2 meters, the surface displacement is 1525 tons, the submerged displacement is 2424 tons, and the submerged speed is 9 knots. It adopts diesel/electric propulsion, with a surface endurance of 9500 nautical miles (10 knots) and an underwater endurance of 500 nautical miles (3 knots).

Compared with the submarines of various countries at that time, the endurance and maneuverability of the "Little Shark"-class submarines of the United States after diving were not good. If they sailed underwater at high speed, the battery would quickly run out of power. Therefore, the "Little Shark"-class submarines sail on the surface most of the time, and the speed on the surface is obviously much faster than underwater.

Even so, the "Little Shark" class submarines performed very well in World War II, repeatedly achieving major victories, and they specialized in "eating" big guys, with an unusually large appetite. For example, in the Battle of the Philippines, they sank the Japanese Navy's "Shokaku" aircraft carrier and the "Taifeng" aircraft carrier, a record that was even more brilliant than that of American aircraft carriers. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, it was still the "Little Shark" class submarines that sank the Japanese Navy's "Atago" cruiser and "Maya" cruiser.

After issuing the combat order, Captain Brian smacked his lips with some regret. "It's a pity that there are no other people around." If they had assembled multiple submarines to launch an attack together like the German submarine force, they might have achieved greater results.

In fact, the US Navy in the original time and space also realized that the single-boat hunting tactics were difficult to work, and launched some attempts similar to the German submarine "wolf pack" tactics. The US Navy intelligence department once discovered a Japanese escort fleet in the waters north of Rabaul, and the commander of the Pacific submarine force ordered a group of three double-boat formations to intercept it to test the feasibility of submarine cluster operations. But the test was unsuccessful, and the group only sank four Japanese ships. This was certainly due to the fact that the Japanese Navy had improved its anti-submarine capabilities, but it was mainly due to the immature tactical coordination and lack of experience among US submarines. At that time, there was no specific attack tactics between the boats, and there was even no communication between them.

Just as Captain Bryan was about to sneak up on the German fleet and make a beautiful sneak attack, he didn't know that the sea search radar on the destroyer responsible for escorting the German fleet had also discovered it. "A submarine was found, at 10 o'clock, 15 kilometers away."

Soon, Captain Bryan saw a destroyer coming towards them at high speed with great momentum, and immediately put away the periscope. "Emergency dive, set depth 100 meters, maintain four knots."

At this time, the ballast tank was filled with water. After receiving the order, the propeller at the tail speed increased, stirring up the water, tilting the hull, and began to dive; and the sailors who were not on duty also ran to the forward torpedo room (pressing the head of the submarine to increase the longitudinal angle can accelerate the dive)

Captain Brian cursed in annoyance. "Damn, it must be the German sea search radar!" The German radar performance is too powerful, right? They just exposed a periscope, and they can detect such a long distance? ! It's incredible! !

A few minutes later, the German destroyer came to this sea area and turned on the active sonar.

Ping! Ping! Ping!

The cavity effect amplified the sound waves hitting the submarine's hull, and Captain Brian's face instantly became extremely ugly.

"Shit!!" The United States has also developed active sonar, and he also has some understanding of active sonar.

There are only two choices now, either to surface and surrender to the Germans, or to fight with them underwater, looking for opportunities to counterattack or escape.

Just as Captain Bryan was hesitating, the sonar operator whispered. "Depth charge!"

Captain Bryan didn't want to surrender so easily, so he gave an order. "Continue to dive to a depth of 150 meters." Following his order, the propeller at the tail of the submarine slowly turned, the hull slowly tilted, and the head moved towards the deeper sea.

After diving to a depth of 150 meters, the active sonar sound waves hitting the submarine's hull did not disappear, and the sonar operator reported again after a while. "Captain, the depth charge is over 100 meters, and it's still sinking!"

"!!" What's going on? Is it a dud? Or did the destroyer on the surface expect them to dive, and simply set the depth to more than 100 meters?

"Continue to dive to a depth of 200 meters." His intuition told him that it was dangerous to stay at this depth.

"Two hundred meters?!" The people around were shocked, but the helmsman still operated the rudder to let the boat tilt down. In the submarine force, the captain has absolute authority. If anyone disobeys orders in battle, the captain can even shoot him.

Soon, they reached a depth of 200 meters. The sonar operator covered his earphones tightly and listened to the voice inside. "The depth charge is still sinking, more than 150 meters!"

"Damn it! Right full rudder, full speed, full advance!" Regardless of whether the two depth charges are duds, Brian dared not take the risk. This is already 200 meters deep, and the pressure of the sea water has reached a terrifying 20 atmospheres. Even if the submarine suffers a little damage, it can cause a tragedy of the boat being destroyed and people being killed.

But before they sailed far, the depth charge had already fallen and exploded behind the submarine. The seawater rolled out countless waves with the explosion point as the center, and with the momentum of thunder, it pressed towards the small shark-class submarine not far away. The outer shell of the submarine could not withstand this terrible impact, and the hull began to twist and deform. With a series of heart-wrenching sounds, a big hole was cracked.

The surging seawater rushed into the interior of the submarine along the broken hole. Before the sailors could react, the seawater flooded the rear torpedo compartment, and then rushed straight to the main engine control compartment, the rear engine room, and the front engine room.

Captain Brian keenly noticed that the submarine was slowly tilting, and the bow of the boat could not help but slowly rise; he immediately ordered the tail ballast tank to be emptied. Unfortunately, the seawater had completely occupied the rear half of the submarine's cabin, and the hull continued to rise. Soon, the angle exceeded 30 degrees; what was even more terrifying was that the entire submarine could not control the sinking, and the depth had exceeded 210 meters, 230 meters, 250 meters...

Pop!

The light bulbs above the head exploded one after another, and the interior of the submarine was pitch black. The entire submarine turned into a cold steel coffin, slowly sinking to the deeper seabed amid the desperate screams of the crew.

For the German fleet, this was just an insignificant episode. The fleet only had one day's journey to Argentina.