Bismarck

I let Oscar go after a few minutes. He meowed threateningly at me and then ran away.

"Oscar is our ship's mascot," Werner said jokingly, "and you beat him like that."

"It looks so miserable?" I said disdainfully. "And it represents me? Oh, no, it's the Bismarck battleship?"

"Bah," I said angrily

"Hahaha"

As we were talking, suddenly music started to sound from all corners of the boat. What was that?

"Germany, Germany, above all,

Above all things in the world;

Whenever possible, to protect and defend,

Brothers always stand together.

······"

This majestic and tragic song - it seems to be the German national anthem?

I was puzzled, but saw that Werner and the other soldiers suddenly looked serious and whispered in agreement.

"What's wrong, Werner?" I asked

"We are taking the dead off the boat now," he said.

I was stunned, and then turned my sight to the bridge. I didn't know when a dozen coffins covered with swastika flags were parked on the front deck, and the soldiers were slowly and carefully putting their former comrades in. The dead were all covered with white cloth, including recruits, sergeants and officers. Compared to the recruits crying when they saw this scene for the first time, the veterans were very calm and just lined up silently on the side.

An air of sadness hangs over me.

"Did all these people die in torpedoes?" I asked bitterly. I knew that some people would die in torpedo attacks, but I didn't know there would be so many.

I dare not look at the body under the shroud. The white cloth is uneven, and some of it still oozes bright red blood. I can imagine what kind of tragic scene is underneath without even scanning. After hundreds of kilograms of explosives exploded, even my armor would be penetrated, let alone my flesh and blood...

"Yeah," Werner nodded silently, "They were in the damaged cabin at the time, and they all died."

"Yeah"

"Germany, Germany, above all,

······

Their ancient and noble reputation;

Inspire us to noble causes,

Even if it takes our whole life."

The majestic national anthem continues

"Sorry, I have to leave now," I suddenly said to Werner, and then ran quickly to the front deck.

I suddenly regretted why I took a rest at that time. If I had persisted at that time, would all this not have happened? They also have their own families and their own lovers. Their children are also waiting for their father to come home, but now... After the death of a person, everything is empty talk.

"They are the warriors of Germany," the captain said to the crew in a ship-wide broadcast. "They also have dreams. Their dreams are to make Germany stronger! Now, they have fallen in the Polish sneak attack, but we have taken over their legacy. Germany's future will surely be brilliant and glorious!"

"Long live the Führer! Long live Germany!" shouted the crew.

"Send them off!"

"Bang, bang, bang..." The guards pointed their guns upwards, a series of crisp gunshots swirled up in the air, and my huge whistle also began to sound.

Soldiers carried the coffin in groups of four and walked carefully toward the dock, trying their best to prevent the brothers inside from shaking at all. I also opened the anti-roll fins and silently kept the ship balanced and stable.

Fortunately, it was still in time. When I ran to the front deck, they were just moving the coffins down in order. At the gangway, I adjusted my hat and stood at attention.

In this atmosphere, no one paid attention to me anymore, but when the first coffin passed by me, I suddenly raised my right hand and saluted in a standard military salute. Then, as more coffins passed by, I kept this gesture and never changed it.

This is my apology, an apology from a warship to its crew. Mistakes cannot be made up for. Let me send you off for the last time. After all, we have fought together.

I felt the gaze from behind me. It was the captain looking at me silently. He understood what I meant...

Chapter 43: Repair and Upgrade

After sending off the fallen heroes, my maintenance schedule has also started in full swing

The next morning, the crew was awakened by the whistle, and under the instructions of the shipyard staff, I slowly left the temporary berth at the dock.

"Three into one!"

"Left full rudder!"

I drew a circle on the water and finally aimed the bow at the huge dock. Coincidentally, that place was exactly the No. 9 dock where I was built.

I was a little amused and confused. After going around in a circle, I was back to the starting point.

"Reverse!"

After entering the dock, my propeller began to reverse, and then the bow slowly hit the crash pad on one side. The sailors on both sides of the ship immediately threw out the cable, and the lead weight flew with the cable to the dock, where workers were already waiting.

Several of my thick cables were quickly tied to the tractors, and under their traction, the hull carefully adjusted its position, aligning the keel with the support frame below.

Finally, after half an hour of fine-tuning, someone announced that the water would be drained. The locks were closed and several high-powered pumps began to work.

Ah - I yawned. Maybe the dock was too big and the water level dropped very slowly. After several hours, I still didn't feel the bottom of the boat hitting the supporting frame. I was getting a little bored of waiting.

The captain is very serious.

"Captain, let's talk." I walked forward and hugged his arm. There were not many people on the bridge right now, and we were within earshot, so no one would notice us, so I became much bolder.

He looked at me, frowned, but said nothing.

Well~ this is the tacit approval of my behavior, I am secretly happy

"What do you want to talk about?" He looked outside and said

"This is my old dock," I said excitedly. "It feels so wonderful to be back here. This is where I met you."

"Yes, I know." The captain nodded.

"Don't you have anything to say?"

"By the way, when did you show up?" he asked

"When did I appear? What does it mean?"

"When did your consciousness arise?" He looked at me.

"Ah, that one." I put my index finger on my lips and looked up at the sky. "It seemed to be when the keel was just being laid. I remember that a bolt of lightning struck the keel and I had an idea."

That's true... But I didn't say the most important thing

"So your consciousness is generated from the keel." The captain seemed to understand something.

"That should be it," I said uncertainly, because I didn't know where my consciousness was parasitic, I always regarded the ship as my body, and I didn't study it seriously. After the captain said that, it made some sense.

"So if your keel is destroyed, you will die too?"

"Captain...are you going to kill me?" I was so confused. How could he think of this?

"Haha," he laughed and touched my cheek. "Bismarck, you think too much. There is no captain who would damage his own ship and take care of it."

"Then please take good care of me." I covered my mouth and chuckled. "Bismarck will help you fulfill your dream."

"..." It was the captain's turn to frown

Another hour passed, and suddenly the entire ship trembled slightly, and the dock immediately became busy.

"Captain, we've hit bottom," I said

"Okay, I see. Are you in the correct position?"

"I felt it and it's right on the base, no problem," I replied

"That's good"

The captain leaned against the bulkhead and said calmly, his eyes fixed on Lindemann, who was commanding on the bridge, thinking for a moment. Is there anything wrong? He had been watching for several minutes.

"Captain, what are you thinking about? It's so deep."

"What do you think of Lindemann?" he asked

"Well? Lindeman is a nice guy," I said seriously.

"It's not about the person, it's about his command ability." The captain stared at Lindemann, as if to test "If he were to be the captain, would he be competent?"

"Boom——" My mind went blank

What does this mean?

"Captain, are you leaving Bismarck?" I said tremblingly. In fact, I was always afraid of this happening, because I knew that the captain of Bismarck in history was not Lütjens, but Lindemann. What the captain meant by this sentence was... But then I thought, I don't believe the captain wants to leave me, but what if it is an order from the Navy Department?

Fortunately, the captain's next words reassured me, "What are you thinking? Do you know that you have a sister ship?"

"Uh, I know." I nodded. I didn't know if it was named, so I didn't dare to say the four words "Tirpitz".

"Should I let Lindemann be the captain of my sister's ship?" I thought of this possibility.

"Yes, I have this plan," the captain nodded. "I will recommend it to the Navy Department when I return to Berlin in a few days."

"That means Lindemann is leaving." Although I was relieved that it wasn't the captain, I still couldn't bear to let Lindemann go.

"Your sister's completion date is still far away." He smiled. "Whether the Navy Department will approve it is also a question."

"There is absolutely no problem with Lindemann's ability." I nodded. "If you recommend it, it won't be a problem."

"By the way, where is my sister ship being built?"

"Wilhelmshaven Naval Shipyard"

The water level was getting lower and lower, and I first exposed the underwater hull painted with red anti-rust paint, and then the two hideous holes appeared. Due to the huge explosion of the torpedo, my armor plate almost disappeared, and the steel at the edge of the hole rolled inward like damaged skin. The ribs on that piece were completely broken, and the broken pieces stood straight up, which was particularly conspicuous in the red hull.

After the water was drained, I was completely suspended on the shelf. Workers came in one after another and started to get busy under the tens of thousands of tons of body.

"It's so ugly..." I complained to the captain. I felt uncomfortable showing such a tragic scene in front of others.

"I built this Bismarck myself two years ago," I heard a worker say as he checked my wound. "When she was first launched, she was so beautiful, with a huge steel body and such powerful firepower. She was one of the most powerful warships in the world. How come she has become like this now?"

"What a pity," sighed another worker, hammering at me. "I heard it was damaged by a Polish submarine torpedo, a heavy torpedo at that."

"This is her first battle, and she has been injured so badly. This is not a good sign. Look, even the anti-torpedo compartment has been pierced." The worker shook his head and picked up a broken boot from a puddle of water. "I don't know which poor child this boot belongs to. May God bless him."

He is already with God, I thought silently.

After dinner, the captain and I went off the ship to take a walk at the dock. There were not many people on the ship. Since the shipyard workers came, the crew members, except for a few who stayed on duty, all went ashore to have fun. The captain did not stop them. After all, they needed to relax after the intense battle and could not keep their nerves tense. And I used this reason to pull the captain off.

We walked around the dock holding hands. Actually, the captain was not used to such close contact at the beginning, but under my "tough" attitude, he still gave in and just stared straight ahead, feeling a little embarrassed.

Seeing the people around me so interesting, my eyes were full of smiles. Is this our date?

The autumn sunset cast a long afterglow on the sea, casting the shadows of me and the captain in front of me. Looking back, under the dim sky, my huge body stood between heaven and earth, with sparks of welding from time to time. The combination of technology and power, well, very beautiful.

"Bismarck, I'm going back to Berlin this time," the captain turned and said to me. Perhaps the tranquil atmosphere infected him, the captain's tone was softer than ever before.

"Yeah? Really? Can I go with you?" I said with a smile

"I won't stay long this time." He shook his head. "You just stay in the shipyard and repair it as soon as possible. I'll be back soon."

"Yes," I agreed softly, "then say hello to Liliana for me."

"I will"

"I will propose an upgrade plan for you to the Navy Department when I return to Berlin this time." The captain thought for a moment and said, "Your mine-proof compartments only have two layers. This time you were attacked by a Polish submarine and suffered serious damage. While you are undergoing a major overhaul, I will try to add an extra layer of mine-proof compartments to your key parts. This way, as long as the same area is not hit continuously, there will be no major damage."

I nodded

"Do you have anything else to add?" he asked. "I can report it as well."

"Yes," I looked up, "I'm still the same, requesting to replace the anti-aircraft guns."

"I'll apply for this when I get back." The captain nodded. "Replace the 37mm gun?"

"Yes," I nodded. "That kind of gun has to be loaded manually by the gunner, and the speed is totally unsatisfactory. I felt there was a loophole when I dealt with a few planes in Danzig, Poland last time. Captain, do you remember the last plane that escaped?"

"Yes, I know."

"Yes, I hit it many times with the 37mm cannon, but it didn't suffer any serious damage and still ran away, which shows that the shells were not powerful enough." I still feel unhappy when I think about it now. I didn't know much about air defense before, and I only knew from later knowledge that Bismarck's anti-aircraft firepower was not good. But from that time on, I personally experienced the shortcomings of the 37 and strengthened my determination to replace it.

I remember that during World War II, one of the U.S. military's black technologies was the radio proximity fuze. Its advantage is that when the shell flies in the air, the fuze will automatically explode if it senses the metal of an airplane around it through the internal inductor coil, which maximizes the accuracy of the shell. It is said that this thing is not very technologically advanced. I don't know if Germany has it. If it doesn't, I will develop it myself. I can control the detonation of the main gun shells as long as I want, but the anti-aircraft shells are too small and too many. I can't handle it. It would be best if there is an automatic one.

"Bismarck, Bismarck"

"Ah?" I suddenly woke up from my thoughts and found that the captain was looking at me helplessly.