Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 704 The Final Blow (2)
Taking advantage of the dim night, Tian Shijie surfaced the submarine and sailed towards the target on the water surface at a speed of 16 knots.On the submarine, a surveillance sentry vigilantly observed the eastern sea with binoculars.

At 4:10, the surveillance sentry suddenly shouted: "A black spot is found in front of the starboard side!" Tian Shijie immediately came to the post to observe for himself.He gazed through the periscope at the gradually brightening horizon with great joy in his heart.The prey was about 2 meters away, and the timing of its discovery and its location was very favorable for the submarine to attack.

The submarine sailed against the rising sun from the southwest, and the crew could clearly see the heavy cruiser.As long as you don't yourself, it will be difficult for the enemy to find this submarine in the dark.He immediately ordered the speed to be reduced from 16 knots to 12 knots to reduce the waves caused by the submarine.

At about 6 o'clock, he saw two enemy destroyers closely guarding the Kent.So, he ordered the submarine to dive, and moved forward quietly at a speed of only 3 knots.The steward distributes combat supplies to each crew member.The torpedo crew wiped the torpedo one last time.

The distance is getting closer.Tian Shijie counted, and there were 2 destroyers and 1 minesweeper, which were surrounded by two rows at a distance of about 1000 meters from the aircraft carrier.

He knew that the periscope would be easy to spot due to the large number of enemy destroyers acting as cover and the calm sea.So he ordered the periscope to be retracted and navigated underwater by listening to the sound.At the beginning, Tian Shijie raised the periscope to observe the sea surface every 10 minutes, and later changed it to raise the periscope every 1 hour.When he was about [-] meters away from the target, he ventured to raise the periscope to observe again.

He observed from the periscope that the enemy destroyers were on high alert and, judging from the noise, the enemy was using sonar.

"Prepare to deal with the enemy's depth bomb attack!" Tian Shijie issued a battle command.

The crew members immediately carried out the order, and waited quietly after holding their breath after getting ready to deal with the depth charges.

At this time, the east wind picked up, blowing layers of fine waves.This is beneficial to No. 188's covert engagement.Tian Shijie then made several periscope observations, but what he saw puzzled him.Although the warship was cruising at a very low speed, its position did not match the submarine pilot's calculations.After Tian Shijie worked hard again and again, his relative position with the Kent not only did not improve, but got worse and worse.

He originally wanted to attack from the left side of the warship, but due to the movement of the warship, he decided to attack its starboard side instead, and changed the position of the submarine accordingly.But after changing the position several times, it is not ideal.

At this time, the two destroyers kept passing above No. 2, and Tian Shijie was even more worried.The crew of the submarine also heard the noise of the British sonar installation.

At 9:37, after he prayed softly, he raised the periscope again.He was taken aback by what the periscope revealed.Because the huge body of the Kent stood in front of him like a mountain, and he could clearly see every face of the coalition officers and soldiers on board.He knew that his submarine was only about 500 meters away from the Kent, and had penetrated deep into the security circle of the enemy destroyer.

Being too close made Tian Shijie not only feel uncomfortable, but also worried that the torpedo attack would fail due to being too close.Because the distance is too short, the torpedo whose depth has been set will pass under the warship.

At this moment, what he was most worried about was the destroyer security circle.He knew that facing the enemy's high level of alert, he would only have one chance to attack, and he had to start to wipe out the enemy.In order to ensure the first hit, Tian Shijie had no choice but to bite the bullet and cross the two destroyer cordons again, doubling the distance between the submarine and the target.

Just as he was moving cautiously towards the attack distance, he suddenly found that the sound of the enemy's sonar detection had all disappeared.He was puzzled by this strange phenomenon, so he asked the navigator: "Is it because the enemy's sonar personnel on duty have gone to lunch?"

Whatever the reason, this unexpected loophole gave Tian Shijie a chance.He ventured again to raise the periscope to observe, and found himself at the ideal distance of 900 meters from the enemy ship.Moreover, the enemy ship was turning towards him.In this way, he was facing exactly amidships, with the entire side of the Kent in the center of his sight.He also caught a destroyer in sight, but he didn't think the enemy ship was an obstacle.

188 has 8 torpedo tubes, 4 in the bow and 4 in the stern.Tian Shijie knew that he could only rely on launching a few torpedoes from the bow of the boat, because it was too late to turn the submarine around and enter the position of launching from the stern, so he had to hit every torpedo.

At 10:05, Tian Shijie loudly issued an order: "Ready to launch!"

After a few seconds, he shouted decisively: "Let go!"

The two torpedoes drew two long streaks of white mist in the water and shot out quickly.Two seconds later, No. 188 fired two more torpedoes in the same direction.

Under normal circumstances, Tian Shijie would take different angles and spread out the four torpedoes, so that one or two torpedoes could hit the target.But this time he thought he would definitely hit, so he fired two volleys at the same point in order to achieve maximum destructive power.

As the 188th approached the Kent, the Kent also seemed to be gradually recovering.Throughout the morning, Cunningham led rescuers to fight on the battered warship, and the destroyer "Hanmann" provided them with the necessary power.There is a rescue team to drain the water tank and fill it with water to prevent overturning.Another detachment removed the heavy equipment on the sloping side.They dealt with the port anchor, the mounts for five small 5mm guns on the port side, and one 20-inch gun.These measures reduced the ship's list by two degrees.The fire that had been burning in the cargo hold for a long time was finally extinguished.Most of the water accumulated under the third deck of the stern has been pumped out.Medical personnel finish the agonizing task of identifying the dead and preparing them for burial. Of the 5 bodies, 35 were unidentifiable.Cunningham sadly presided over a brief ceremony before burying them at sea.

At 10:05, when Cunningham was busy and anxious, he suddenly noticed four torpedo tracks appearing on the calm sea. He shouted: "Torpedo!"

A machine gun on the warship immediately fired an alarm, and the "torpedo attack!" alarm was issued quickly.

The destroyer USS Hanman fired desperately at the mine trails, trying to detonate the torpedoes before they hit the target, but to no avail.

"boom!"

The first torpedo hit the middle of the "Hammann" hull, and the other two went under it, hitting the joint between the bottom of the Kent's starboard side and the side of the ship, blowing a large hole in the hull.A fourth torpedo missed the ship's stern.As the Kent's No. [-] auxiliary elevator was uprooted, all fixtures slammed onto the hangar deck.The rivet of the starboard side leg of the fore-mast was broken, and people were thrown everywhere, some were thrown into the sea, and some were thrown with broken bones, skin and flesh, and bruises.

The No. 3 boiler room of the destroyer "Hanman" was hit, the hull was almost blown into two pieces, and it sank in less than [-] minutes.Many were thrown from the deck into the sea, and many others were killed instantly.

Lieutenant Colonel Tru, the captain of the "Hanman", was blown up by the explosion, and his chest hit the table. He broke a rib and couldn't breathe or speak, so the deputy captain had to order the ship to abandon the ship.

更糟糕的事又接踵而来。“汉曼”号下沉时，它上面的深水炸弹在3个不同深度发生爆炸，掀起的水柱足有15英尺高。舰上13名军官中9人丧生，228名舰员中72名死亡。

At the moment when Tian Shijie's fourth torpedo was launched, the submarine had dived to the maximum depth it could safely dive to, about 100 meters.Then Tian Shijie drove the boat directly towards the Kent.Tian Shijie believes that the closer to the scene, the safer, because the enemy destroyer will not drop depth charges near the Kent, otherwise it will kill the enemy survivors swimming in this area.

Time passed slowly second by second, and the air was almost still.Tian Shijie and everyone else on the boat were waiting for the sound of the explosion.About 40 seconds after launching the torpedo, the submarine shook violently, followed by the second and third times.Every time the submarine shook, the sailors jumped for joy. They hugged each other and shouted "Long live!"

Tian Shijie knew that for the people on board, the battle had just begun.It is much easier for a submarine to stalk prey than to escape from it.So he sent a message to the whole boat: "The real battle will start from now on, all cheer up!"

Less than 5 minutes after the torpedo was launched, the enemy's depth charges were dropped, but Tian Shijie found that the destroyer seemed to be dropping them blindly.So the first hour of the 188th was relatively easy.An hour later, the situation changed suddenly. Another destroyer passed directly above No. 188 from right to left and dropped several depth charges.

Tian Shijie used all the evasion methods mentioned in the textbook, but he still couldn't avoid the depth charges dropped from above his head like a relay race.What worried him finally happened.Suddenly, No. 188 jumped up like a wild horse, the paint above the heads of the crew began to peel off piece by piece, the lighting system failed, and the inside of the boat was pitch black.He ordered emergency lighting to be activated quickly and the damage investigated.The results of the investigation were: the front torpedo launch compartment and the rear steering gear compartment were flooded, and the battery was damaged.

The crew quickly plugged the leak, but the battery couldn't be repaired for a while.The sulfuric acid in the battery slowly leaked out and reacted with the seawater in the cabin, releasing a large amount of chlorine gas.The crew became more and more difficult to breathe, and even the rats on the bottom of the boat choked and ran out to escape the suffocating smell.

The depth charges dropped one after another, like a shaker for making a cocktail, making the submarine shake continuously.Due to the lack of electricity, the submarine was immobilized, and the horizontal and vertical rudders failed.In order to prevent the submarine from surfacing, Tian Shijie assigned the crew to run around, injecting water and draining water to make the weight evenly distributed.The chief mechanic and electrical engineer put on masks and led his staff to race against time to repair the battery.Several people were so gassed that they had to be carried out of the battery room.

(End of this chapter)