Iron Cross

Major Linton had the same doubts as Captain Blokamp. Although this anxiety could not be shown on his face, it was still tormenting his heart. After trying to calm down to no avail, he endured it. Keep calling Malta to inquire about the situation. The call back from the base came quickly, telling him that the Italian oil tanker had "absolutely and definitely" left the port, and asked him not to be anxious and wait with peace of mind. Before he could finish smoking a cigarette, a second telegram came, saying that according to the latest intercepted telegram, Guderian was also inquiring about the situation of the tanker. The Italian called back and told him that he was sure to have left the port because of problems with the port transshipment. If the time is delayed, it may be 48 hours later than the original time.

"So that's it." Captain Blaukamp cursed secretly after receiving the telegram from Colonel Linton. No wonder the oil tanker was nowhere to be seen. It turned out that the unreliable Italians were habitually late. It didn't matter to him as long as the enemy was willing to wait for two more days. For a moment, he felt much more relaxed. Thinking that it was still early, he planned to go back to the cabin and take a nap first - staring at the sea all day and night made him feel I can't hold it any longer,

Suddenly, Corporal George, who had been leaning on the railing to look at the scenery, turned his head and asked: "Captain, why is there a 'buzzing' sound? Is it because the submarine equipment is not operating properly?"

"No, the engine is operating normally." Captain Blaukamp listened carefully and did not hear the "buzzing" sound the other party mentioned. The conversation between the two attracted everyone's attention. Everyone stopped chatting and listened carefully, but they all said they didn't notice anything. Corporal George himself was a little suspicious. After listening for a while and not hearing the sound again, he thought he might have heard it wrong. He forced a smile and said, "Maybe I didn't get enough rest and had a hallucination."

Unexpectedly, just as Captain Blaukamp turned around, another junior soldier also raised his hand: "Sir, I heard it too." He told everyone with a sure look that he was not hallucinating.

Everyone listened carefully again, some said yes, some said no. Now Captain Blokamp became cautious, checked it carefully, and called inside from the hatch cover to inquire about the situation. The navigator's reply was "Everything is normal."

At this time, the sound became clearer and clearer, and Blaukamp himself heard it. This was definitely not a sound made by a submarine. He was wondering where the sound came from when Corporal George suddenly shouted: "In the air! The sound is in the air , it’s the sound of an airplane.”

"Plane?" Captain Blaukamp immediately raised the high-powered telescope on the deck and looked in the direction George pointed out. Sure enough, he saw a plane flying from the north, flying at a low altitude. Are they going to bomb Tobruk? But whether the planes take off from the Malta base or the Alexandria base, they should be heading east-west. Why does this one come from the north, and why are there so few in number? Due to the height limit of the telescope, he did not detect the escort fighter jets hidden in the clouds higher up.

However, he could see clearly that these aircraft were all four-engine, which were very typical features of heavy bombers. As far as he knew, neither the Germans nor the Italians had four-engine bombers. The only ones with this feature were the Royal Air Force, so He laughed: "This is probably our air force going to bomb the Germans..."

Everyone felt relieved when he said it. Some even suggested: "If the damn Italians haven't shown up yet, why don't we let the plane go look for them?"

Captain Blaukamp laughed while insisting on observing the aircraft to see clearly what model it was. After watching it for a long time, he felt that the incoming aircraft seemed to be quite different from the aircraft models he had observed in the past, not to mention that even a heavy bomber was different. It should fly this low.

"No!" He suddenly screamed, "All personnel returned to the cabin immediately, made an emergency dive, and prepared..." Before he could finish speaking, he took the lead and ran towards the hatch cover like an arrow from a string.

The people around were stunned for a moment. Although their minds could not turn around, their body reflexes were not slow. They saw the captain running into the hatch cover first and climbing down the ladder using his hands and feet. Others followed him. , lest you fall behind. The navigator was confused by the captain's yelled order and subconsciously asked: "The Italians are coming?"

"No! Far more terrifying than the Italians..." Captain Blaukamp, ​​who was still in shock, gasped and shouted while directing the soldiers to take their positions, "I can see clearly, the German Iron Cross logo is painted on the underside of the wing. It's not a Royal Air Force bomber at all, it's the German Fw-200! I once heard the old guys who fought in the Bay of Biscay talk about it. This is a very difficult guy to deal with - he also has 4 engines. , so terrible!”

"Hurry up!" Captain Blaukamp yelled at the top of his lungs. The last crew member finally landed in the cabin and closed the hatch cover with a "bang". The submarine finally began to sink urgently, and the seawater surged rapidly. Entering the water tanks on both sides of the submarine, the huge body of the submarine gradually disappeared above the water.

Captain Blaukamp recognized it correctly. It was the Fw-200C long-range maritime patrol bomber nicknamed "Vulture". After the launch of Operation Rolling Stone, the aviation force on Crete has been secretly increasing. These "Biscay Bay merchant ship killers" have also been transferred to undertake patrol and anti-submarine missions in the surrounding waters. When Guderian used fake telegrams to deceive the British, his chain of tricks had already been used simultaneously. Several planes were sent to the tanker's route and destination to conduct reconnaissance in order to find the British ambush force. The Fw-200 had searched the relevant waters for a day yesterday, but nothing was found because the Furious and Traveler strictly followed the ambush order. This morning, the radio monitoring team on Crete intercepted the telegram signal in the southern waters. Although the content could not be deciphered, there was no doubt that it was the British. It was just unknown whether it was a warship or a submarine. From the time point of view, it was exactly when Major Linton communicated with the base about the ambush.

Captain Blaukamp only knew that the vulture was coming for him, but he didn't know that there was another vulture patrolling farther away. Major Linton's ship, the Furious, was discovered earlier than him.

The vulture had already swept back and forth in this sea area, and lowered its altitude to just over 100 meters above sea level. The calm and sparsely populated Mediterranean Sea was now extremely easy to survey. Suddenly, an observation sergeant noticed the ripples slowly disappearing on the sea surface, and immediately shouted: "Captain, look, what is that?"

The captain took up the telescope and took a closer look. Although the ripples had gradually dissipated, it was still certain that a large object had fallen nearby. There was nothing wrong on the sea surface, but the seawater was highly visible under the sun, and soon the Voyager was betrayed. The captain saw the dark object slowly sinking under the water, and a smile appeared on his lips: "That's a submarine."

"Ours?"

"No! British."

"Why are you so sure?"

"First, the base didn't tell us that there were any of our submarines nearby; second,..." The captain laughed, "If it was our submarine, why would it hide so quickly? Only enemy submarines would dive quickly out of guilt..."

"Hahaha! Great, we finally found this guy. I thought today would be as futile as yesterday..."

"Prepare depth charges." The captain's order was very calm, "Set the depth to 30 meters, no, 35 meters."

It wasn't long before the bombardier replied: "The hedgehog bomb is ready."

"Ready, fire!" A hedgehog bomb was immediately pushed down, and a huge water column burst out from the sea surface after a while.

The average depth of the Mediterranean Sea is only 50-60 meters, and the Furious and the Traveler chose to ambush the tanker in the open sea not far from the port, where the average depth is only 45-50 meters. Captain Blaukamp originally hoped that the entire submarine would sit on the bottom - that would give him a chance to get rid of the plane overhead, but time was his enemy. The submarine had tried its best to dive, but it was still slower than the speed of the plane dropping depth charges.

"Go on, release." The depth charges on the Vulture continued to drop.

"Captain! Depth charges!" The sound of the bomb entering the water was extremely clear in the sonar, and the submarine listener suddenly screamed in fear, "It's coming towards us."

"Prepare for impact prevention, the plugging team is ready to plug the leak." Captain Blaukamp had no time to think about it, and could only use all his strength to issue targeted orders. He only felt his teeth clenching and prayed that the enemy's bombs would not be too accurate.

"Boom!" With a sound, the bomb exploded not far away, and the hull shook violently, but it seemed to be unscathed. The submarine managed to dodge the first few hedgehog bombs, but the explosions around it caused the seawater to become chaotic. The Voyager was shaken left and right by the impact. When the sixth hedgehog bomb exploded, the huge pressure caused all the lights in the cabin to go out. A large number of pipes could not withstand the pressure and began to spray water. The leak-blocking team rushed forward to maintain it.

"Set the depth to 45 meters." Although the captain could no longer see the dark shadow under the water, his intuition told him that the enemy was still under the water, "Keep dropping, he can't run away!"

When the seventh depth charge fell, the Voyager's good luck finally came to an end. The depth charge exploded almost at the bow of the boat. The huge pressure generated instantly formed a terrifying water pressure through the conduction of water. The overloaded submarine pressure hull made a "crunching" sound of metal tearing, and finally it could not support it and broke apart. Seawater suddenly poured into the cabin, and this Royal Navy submarine would never float up again.

After all the water columns subsided, the captain carefully observed the movement of the sea surface and found that large pieces of oil and personal belongings of the crew members were slowly floating up. "Good job, guys, we sank a British submarine." Cheers resounded throughout the cabin!

While talking, the navigator received a call from another plane: "Vulture 1, Vulture 1, I'm No. 2, I'm No. 2, we just sank a submarine, judging from the floating wreckage, it's British."

On the morning of September 7, two submarines of the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet sank in the waters outside Tobruk Port. All 113 people including Major Linton were killed and no one survived.