Bismarck

My sailing time is set at night. I will leave the port under the cover of darkness, then head to the Kiel Canal, and finally cross to the designated sea area - the Baltic Sea.

At around ten o'clock in the evening, in the whistling sea breeze, the young men, still in high spirits, untied my rope.

"Each department should count the number of people and report to the department head," said Ernst Lindemann, the deputy chief, to the amplifier in the cabin. This order was to prevent sailors from leaving the dock. Before long, the number of people counted by each department was reported to the bridge.

"Captain, everyone is here, we can set off," Lindman said, walking quickly behind the admiral.

Hamburg was still a bit cold at night in April, and the breath could condense into white mist. But the admiral was wearing a formal suit, only a black windbreaker, standing in the cold wind with a calm face, looking at the dark sea outside the bridge.

"Let's go!" After a while, he whispered

The tone was solemn, and it seemed to me like a ritual.

"Yes, Captain," Lindemann snapped to attention, his heels clicking loudly.

"Pack up items on deck, hide personnel, close watertight doors, our ship is ready to leave the dock!"

"Ding-ling-ling, ding-ling-ling, ding-ling-ling--" Lindmann's order was transmitted to every cell in my body along with the sound of the electric bell, and then it was activated as if it were an electric shock. Everyone started to move. At this moment, they all became a whole.

Five tugboats that had been on standby came over and threw cables onto my deck. The sailors from the sail and cable department quickly tied cables as thick as their forearms to the mooring poles. With the combined efforts of the tugboats, I gradually left the dock.

"Beep--" a long whistle sounded, and then my "heart" began to beat vigorously. The huge horsepower of 150,000 was transmitted to the brass propeller through three thick propulsion shafts, and the strong water waves stirred up waves of sea mud.

"All ships enter level three combat deployment and prepare for navigation in narrow waterways." Just after leaving the dock, Lindmann rang the combat deployment bell again.

At first I was stunned on the bridge, not knowing why the combat alert was sounded suddenly. I thought the British were coming to bomb us so soon, so I quickly hid in the cabin. Later I learned that according to the naval navigation regulations, navigation in narrow waterways is set to level three combat alert by default.

And later I thought that my action was really stupid - this boat is me, and I am this boat, so what if I hide in the cabin...

Since we were inside the harbor and it was night, they limited my speed to 10 knots and drove carefully. Of course, with my body, I shouldn't be the one who should be most careful, right?

It was not until I passed the beacon light indicating the deep sea area that the vast sea area appeared before my eyes. From now on, it was my world!

"Release the third-level combat deployment, remove the third-level combat deployment, and start sailing under normal conditions," Lindmann gave the order again.

The "Three-in-Three" general has spoken

"Three forward three," the sailor in charge of the bell repeated loudly, and at the same time, the bell rang to three forward.

The command of "three into three" was quickly transmitted to the engine room, and the boys there faithfully carried out the order, pressed the switch, and increased the oil intake.

My body began to tremble slightly and I sped up. Water splashed on the bow of the boat, making a gurgling sound in the silent night.

I began to gallop across the vast ocean.

"Is it three into three now?" the admiral suddenly asked Lindemann.

"It's three into three, Captain, what's the problem?" Lindemann replied respectfully

“No, you did great.”

"Strange, why is Bismarck's three-in-three speed so much faster? Is there something wrong with the engine room? Am I feeling wrong?" The admiral walked outside the bridge, turned his gaze back to the water, and muttered softly.

I heard it with my sharp ears and was stunned for a moment. I was silent in my heart, thinking embarrassedly

"Sir, you are actually right, and the guys in the engine room are also right. I was the one who felt that the flight was not comfortable enough, so I secretly increased the speed!"

I hope you won't be scolded, guys. Amen.

Onward, Baltic Sea

Midnight

The moon gradually rose from the distant sea level, and the silvery white light cast by the bright moon covered my footsteps. The night in the North Sea was so quiet, and the only sound in the air was the sound of the waves splitting the water by the bow of my ship.

"Captain, we are out of the Elbe River and have reached the North Sea," Lindmann reported to the admiral after getting confirmation from the chart cartographer.

Lütjens looked at his watch. It was just over a quarter past midnight.

"So soon?" he asked

"Yes, just passed the traffic light."

I was watching him from the side, and he looked a little puzzled. Haha, he must be wondering why he passed the Elbe River so quickly.

I won't tell you that I did it, I'm just secretly laughing on the side

He was silent for a while, and said nothing, but gave the order:

"Start sailing at full speed, pass through the Kiel Canal and reach the designated sea area before tomorrow morning."

"Yes," Lindmann saluted.

The Elbe River is just outside the Hamburg Port. I just crossed the Elbe River to reach the North Sea. The Kiel Canal mentioned by the Admiral is located in the middle of the North Sea. It is a large man-made canal that connects the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and runs through the entire Jutland Peninsula, providing great convenience for our warships to enter and exit. If there is no Kiel Canal, I can only go around the Danish Peninsula to reach the Baltic Sea, which will directly add nearly a thousand nautical miles to the journey, and it is very dangerous to face the surveillance of the British Navy and Air Force without the cover of local forces.

Don't ask me where I got this information from. Of course, I read it in the library. If I stayed in the shipyard for two years, I would have gone crazy. If I went crazy, I think Bismarck would fall apart. Fortunately, there is a library not far from the shipyard, so I can go in and read books from time to time to amuse myself. And of course, the library next to the shipyard has a lot of nautical charts and books about canals, which has also helped me gain a lot of knowledge - after all, I am no longer an ordinary person.

"Forward Five" Lindemann ordered

"Five ahead!" the bellman shouted back, "Three cars ahead five!"

“Click, click, ding—”

My whole body trembled, and I didn't know why I became excited, as if the desire for high speed that I had been suppressing in my heart suddenly burst out.

It took some time from the order to increase the speed, but I didn't wait for the engine operator to reply to the clock. I forced the oil inlet valve open while keeping the instrument unchanged, and the heavy oil burned fiercely in my combustion chamber. The surging power suddenly burst out from my "heart", leaving a long tail behind me.

"Lindmann, the engine room crew's response was good this time," said the Admiral, sitting in the captain's chair.

This is my contribution, I complained. The engine room crew followed the procedure and only just increased the oil flow rate of the oil transfer valve.

But maybe I burned too much heavy fuel, the acceleration was obviously noticeable, I have to pay attention next time.

"26 knots" the speed guard reported loudly

After a while he reported "27th period"

"28——29——"

The speed gradually increased and did not stabilize until it reached 32 knots. This was the maximum speed for which I was designed. As long as I could reach this speed, my power system was considered normal.

The sea breeze whistled past on both sides, and the splashes stirred up by the bow occasionally hit the towering bridge, wetting the glass.

"Captain, we have reached our maximum speed," Lindman said.

I saw the Admiral nodded and his expression relaxed, which proved that he was quite satisfied with my speed.

“Keep the speed”

A warship with a full load displacement of 32 tons can reach a speed of knots, which is already an extremely high speed. But I felt that my power system had not reached its limit, and I wanted to try how fast I could run, so my will followed the hull to the engine room - no one noticed that the diameter of the oil valve pipeline seemed to have expanded a little.

The combustion intensified again, and the roar of the machine drowned out the entire cabin.

"33 knots!" The speedometer thought he was dazzled. He was about to retract the speedometer when he suddenly found that the speed on it had begun to change again. He immediately reported loudly again.

"What?" Lindemann repeated, suspecting he had not heard clearly.

"33 knots! Deputy Commander, the speed of the Bismarck has reached 33 knots," the speedometer said excitedly.

I curled my lips, wondering why I was so excited? It was not the limit yet. I increased the oil supply again, while paying close attention to the operation of the pipelines and various instruments and equipment.

"Wait, let me take a look." Lindemann strode over and took his instrument. At the same time, Lütjens also stood up and looked at them, and seemed to be surprised by the news. However, he was a superior after all, and compared to the excitement of Lindemann and the junior officer, he did not show his emotions, but the raised corners of his lips still revealed his thoughts.

Haha, do you like my gift? I waved my hands in front of him blatantly and made a face.

The speed kept increasing, but after using my willpower to secretly repair more than a dozen leaking pipes, I knew that I had probably reached my limit. If I continued to speed up, if the repair speed could not keep up with the speed of the cracks, the entire cabin would probably be filled with high-temperature steam and other things. I didn't want any accidents to happen. So I finally stabilized my speed at 37 knots.

But this ultra-high speed of 37 knots still shocked everyone, including the Admiral who was calm at the beginning.

What does this represent?

This means I am a fast, heavy battleship.

This means that I have super heavy armor, super firepower and strong mobility.

Can fight, run and take damage

It's simply cheating, I guess everyone in the bridge thinks so - of course, whether they know the word "cheating" is debatable. But I am indeed cheating. According to the Bismarck itself, if I didn't strengthen the pipeline, 32 knots would indeed be the limit.

I wanted to test my maximum speed and prepare for the future "Operation Rhine". I was actually quite hardworking.

The engineer who was sailing with the ship had no idea what was going on. I guess he had never encountered a ship that exceeded the design speed by so much. I have checked the ship library and generally speaking, exceeding the speed by one knot is considered good.

"Captain, I think we should go to the engine room and check in case there is any problem." The engineer couldn't understand why I was in such a strange state, but out of a sense of responsibility he still suggested it to the admiral.

"Then go down and help the engine room guys check it out," said the Admiral.

The engineer nodded and walked down.

"Captain, although the Bismarck can run that fast, it is an uneconomical speed. She has been running for almost an hour." Lindemann looked at his watch and said, "We can reduce her speed."

Lütjens thought for a while.

"Three into three bars"

"Yes" Lindemann returned

“Three into Three”

"Three into three, three cars into three!"

I slowed down as if in relief, and soon maintained a cruising speed of 24 knots, at which I could travel more than nautical miles on my own.

To be honest, if my captain kept asking me to maintain this speed, I would have a headache. Now it can be said that I rely entirely on my will to maintain the integrity of the pipeline, but I am not proficient in using my will, and an hour of high speed has already made me feel tired.

It seems that I must use this power from time to time to improve my proficiency.

Jingle Bell--

"Captain's room," Lindman answered the phone and said

He just lowered his head and listened, then said "yeah" twice, hung up the phone, turned around and reported to the general.

"Captain, Mr. Ferris (the shipyard engineer) said that the Bismarck's engine system is operating normally and there is no problem at all."

"This is truly a miraculous battleship," Lindemann exclaimed

"It is indeed a miracle. I hope she can bring this miracle to future battlefields." The Admiral nodded.

"For Germany," he said calmly, looking around the cab.

"Long live the Führer!" everyone in the bridge shouted together.

Around 3 a.m.

Due to the shift system used for long-term day and night voyages, at this moment, there are only a few people on duty in the bridge, and most of the personnel, including the Admiral, have gone to rest first. I sat on the armored top of the bridge, bored, with my legs hanging down along the bulkhead, swinging constantly.

Looking far away, I could already see the entrance to the Kiel Canal in the distance. Lindemann was on duty in the bridge. He held a telescope in his left hand and looked at the sea from time to time in the moonlight. His eyesight was obviously not as far as my perception. He ordered a turn ten minutes after I spotted the Kiel Canal.

"Right rudder 15" I heard him tell the helmsman across the bulkhead

"15 degrees left!"

"Three into two"

"Three cars into two!"

I slowed down again and pointed the bow towards the Kiel Canal.

The Kiel Canal is only one hundred kilometers long. At my current speed, we will reach the Baltic Sea around tomorrow morning, and the real sea trial will begin there.

Chapter 7: First Encounter at Kiel Harbor

I was originally expected to arrive at the Baltic Sea around 8 a.m. the next day, but when I was passing through the Kiel Canal, its lock broke down, delaying me for nearly two hours. By the time I arrived at the reserved sea area, it was almost noon.

The normal number of personnel on duty was restored in the bridge. Lindemann had gone down to rest, and the one in command was the Admiral.

The captain sat in the captain's chair with a serious face. His voice was quiet but full of majesty. He issued orders from time to time to control my real-time dynamics. I really think that the admiral is an excellent commander, but his serious look made the officers and soldiers in the bridge subconsciously restrain their smiles. The direct impact was that the temperature in the bridge dropped several degrees compared to when Lindemann was there.

Although I have only been on board for a few days, I have heard several young men complaining about their bad luck in always being assigned to work on the same shift with the Admiral. I can only smile sympathetically at them in my heart.

Anyway, I was bored and didn't need to rest, so I stayed in the bridge all day, watching the crew busy. This was my first time to go to sea, but I don't know why, I always felt like I had rehearsed it several times and was familiar with it. This is probably the instinct of warships, the instinct of the ocean.

"Captain!" cried the Admiral.

"Here!" The navigator came running over and asked, "Captain, what can I do for you?"

"How long will it take us to reach Kiel?"

"At our current speed, we can arrive at 4:00 this afternoon," the navigator replied immediately.

Kiel is an important port in the Baltic Sea, not far from the exit of the Kiel Canal. It has important strategic and shipping value. It is also an important base of the German Navy. I am now heading to Kiel, where I plan to rest for seven days. During this time, I will complete the ammunition loading and hull painting to facilitate the later firepower test.

"Speed ​​up, reach the maximum speed, and conduct sea trials again," he said. I guess he wanted to test my performance again on this route.