Bismarck

"This damn destroyer has such bad luck! Anyone who disrupts the formation will be hit. Let's aim at the next one! Dive to avoid it, their ship is coming!"

At this point, the psychological shadow area of ​​Captain Z10 should be discussed. A scolding is inevitable. I saw that Bangtai on Z7 was so angry that he threw his hat away! But what happened can no longer be undone, and the battle must continue.

The Z10 was judged to be sunk on the spot by the referee team watching the battle on its ship! So the only ship that could hunt down U99 was Z11.

Z11 maintained a speed of 16 knots and rushed towards the position of U99.

The captain of Z11 knew very well that German submarines had the best diving performance in the world. If he arrived too late, the opponent would slip away. However, if the speed was too fast, the sonar could not be used and the opponent's position could not be locked. Therefore, he could only maintain a speed of 16 knots to force the opponent underwater, and then use sonar to slowly search and eliminate it.

The idea was good, but since U99 was at periscope depth from the beginning and the distance was 3000 meters, it would take at least five or six minutes to get here at 16 knots. At this time, the cunning U99 had already dived to a depth of 200 meters, waiting to play a cat-and-mouse game with Z11...

At this time, the sun had already set near the horizon, and only the last rays of the setting sun remained on the sea, a golden glow. The glittering sea was very beautiful. If it were the past, I would have happily taken out my camera to take pictures, but this natural landscape was a deadly threat to anti-submarine warfare! No one could find the cunning submarines and deadly torpedoes in the sparkling water - what's more annoying is that the submarines now move east-west, making it almost impossible to find them! The beautiful sea was now as terrible as hell.

The four destroyers Z5, Z7, Z4, and Z3 were no longer careless. Together with the Bismarck, they formed a formation and desperately performed anti-submarine Z-shaped maneuvers, and kept turning on the sonar to search the seabed. However, the sonar at that time was not very effective in searching targets sailing on the surface... Under the cover of night, my sensing ability still easily discovered the two submarine formations hiding in the night and following the formation far behind. They caught up with us on the water and slowly approached us at a surface speed of 16 knots.

The fleet, which realized the situation belatedly, was still maneuvering in a Z shape. The crew members on the bridge had to hold onto something to keep their balance from time to time. The captain kept receiving reports from the referee team, but there was still no sign of any submarine.

They seemed to have disappeared out of thin air... Of course, everyone knows that this is impossible. The most terrifying thing is that there is no trace!

On the sea behind the fleet, the submarines U123 and U47, sailing side by side, quietly followed the formation at a speed of 16 knots. I locked their position again and invaded.

On U123, Karl-Heinz Much looked at the chaotic formation ahead, then at the guy next to him - U47.

"The enemy's formation is in disarray, so it's our turn," he shouted, "Right rudder 15 degrees!"

"Yes! Right rudder 15!"

He commanded the submarine to drive straight over the water surface, and with the cover of the setting sun, the black sea wolves quickly disappeared into the gradually darkening night - the wolves opened their bloody mouths.

"Okay, it's our turn. Left rudder 15 degrees!"

U47's Gunter Prien tightened his leather jacket and said. (PS: Historically, Muhle's submarine at this time was U20, but the performance of that North Sea Duck was too backward, so he was replaced with U123 in advance...)

Because the formation was constantly performing anti-submarine maneuvers, and the formation was actually dispersed in an area of ​​2 kilometers wide and 3 kilometers long, no matter how textbook-like the operations of each ship were when turning, there would actually always be some deviation in position.

Although it didn't seem fatal, in fact, the two destroyers Z3 and Z4 had already distanced themselves from the fleet without anyone noticing. What was even more fatal was that the anti-submarine maneuvers were constantly zigzagging, and in the eyes of experienced submarine commanders, they could roughly predict which direction the enemy would turn, and this time it was to the right...

In order to maintain the formation, the destroyer Z4 had to slow down to 10 knots, while the Z3 on the other side had to speed up to 16 knots in order to maintain the formation. As a result, a flaw was actually formed between the two of them, a fatal flaw.

With a disdainful snort, the U123 sailing on the water passed through the escort formation from this position. Although Z4 barely spotted a suspicious shadow with the last bit of sunset light, the alarm bells rang immediately, but by the time he reported it, it was too late...

"Twin torpedoes, fire!" Karl-Heinz Much gave the order quickly.

"emission!"

My heart suddenly stopped - I watched two more torpedoes being fired from the front of the U-boat, and this time the target was clearly me.

After sailing to the right for a while under the control of the helmsman, my ship habitually began to turn left. Two torpedoes were approaching rapidly, which was equivalent to me "crashing" into the torpedo's track!

This is really... I really want to grab the rudder from the helmsman, or take over the entire ship to control the direction. I don't know if the captain has heard the story of once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of the rope for ten years. It feels too bad to let a "person" who has been hit by two torpedoes watch himself crash into the torpedoes.

"Bismarck, you don't look right. Are you feeling unwell?" Dönitz glanced at me and said.

At this time, the captain's eyes also looked over here. I watched him move his lower lip but didn't say anything.

At this time, the signal officer ran over and reported loudly, "Captain, Z4 reports, submarine traces found!"

"Oh, did you find it?" The captain looked at Dönitz and said lightly, and the latter shrugged indifferently.

The captain was about to stand up, but before he could make any move, an even more panicked voice came from the lookout in the watchtower, and everyone was shocked!

"Two torpedoes spotted to the left rear, 500 yards!"

"Hold hard left!" Lindemann shouted immediately

"Full left!" The helmsman reacted quickly, giving orders while taking action.

With a crisp "rustling...click" sound, the rudder was broken. Everything from then on was up to fate. Everyone held their breath.

"It's too late," I whispered. This is not a game. A battleship can stop in 8 seconds to avoid a mine. In fact, at this speed, after turning the rudder, my ship will take at least a minute and a half to react under the huge inertia. This distance of just a few hundred is enough for the torpedo gun to go back and forth several times...

When the captain heard what I said, he pursed his lips and said nothing, but his face turned grim.

My ship began to turn with difficulty, but only halfway through, two torpedoes hit the bow and stern one after another...

My face turned a little pale.

"duangduang!"

"The target was sunk!" the referee team announced loudly.

I was "sunk"...

"Captain, it seems that my boys have won." Doenitz stood up, put on his hat, and smiled with relief. I could see that he was a little nervous. Of course, everyone knows how low the chances of three submarines against six destroyers are. It would be a lie to say that he was not nervous. But this time the submarines really won. Their wolf pack tactics successfully broke through the destroyer's defense line and sank my "target".

The captain nodded.

My crew members have done their best, and I don't think anyone will say anything. It's not their fault. However, the behavior of the destroyer formation later really makes me speechless.

When the referee team had already determined that U123 had already rushed into the escort team, a scene that surprised everyone appeared - in order to drive away the deadly threat of U123, Z3, which still had some speed, risked the complete collapse of its anti-submarine formation and left its position, and dropped several "depth charges" far away from the formation. Although it was determined that U123 was sunk, U47, which was following the formation, swaggered in the direction Z3 left and fired four torpedoes at the tail of Z3. In the end, the director team determined that under the salvo of four torpedoes fired by U47, Z3's tail was hit by a torpedo, severely damaged, and lost its combat effectiveness...

"Spread smoke, the exercise is over!" After hearing what the director team said, the captain was speechless and gave the order with a sigh.

Soon, the smoke representing the end of the exercise dissipated above me, the destroyer resumed its sailing formation, and the submarines poked their heads out from the bottom of the water one after another, including U123, which was determined to be "sunk", and U556, which had never appeared - in fact, I had no sense where it had gone.

After arriving at the anchorage in the North Sea, all the ship commanders were picked up and dropped off on the command ship by my transport boat. A day of high-intensity training was followed by a summary meeting, in which the captains reviewed the data one by one. Of course, it can be confirmed that the destroyer's performance was definitely not very good.

During this exercise, Bismarck was hit by two torpedoes, and combined with the previous torpedo attack by U123, although Z3 was judged to have sunk U123, two destroyers, Z3 and Z10, were lost. In addition, the "target" was not saved, and the destroyer formation suffered a miserable defeat.

Rear Admiral Bangtai was furious. After the exercise review and summary meeting, he scolded the six destroyer captains in my corridor. The captain of Z3 was especially criticized. Even though he "sank" the only U-boat, he was also the one who made the biggest mistake. It was his reckless advance that led to the collapse of the anti-submarine formation. If there was not only one U-boat following behind, the consequences would have been even more serious.

The captain of Z3 naturally became the target of the captain and Bangtai’s concentrated fire, and his health bar was emptied in one hit! ! !

But no matter what, today's exercise has ended. After the summary, we will start tomorrow's subjects. Tomorrow's subjects will be seaplane reconnaissance aircraft cooperating with destroyers to fight against submarines.

Dönitz was smiling happily today... I wonder if you will still be able to smile tomorrow? I thought with some malice, let's wait and see!

Chapter 57: Reversal

After the summary meeting, the three generals and nine captains had dinner together on my ship. Of course, it was impossible to make the atmosphere of the dinner friendly. The victorious captains were jubilant, while the defeated captains were dejected and looked at each other with disdain... Well, it's normal, it will be better tomorrow, it should be reversed.

After dinner, there was a meeting to arrange the exercise subjects for the next day. According to my proposal, seaplanes will participate in tomorrow's exercise, so the attendees also included the pilots of my four planes. The staff on the stage explained the exercise steps in detail, and the people below the stage had different expressions. It can be said that it was very exciting. The captain on the main seat naturally sat very calmly, but I don't know if he was listening. Bangtai's face was not very good, but he was taking notes as seriously as always. The captains on the seats of the destroyers next to him were gritting their teeth, as if they wanted to take revenge and get back at the submarine. The four captains listened to the staff's plan confidently, and their expressions were focused, but their boss Dönitz seemed to have a little... faint worry in his eyebrows?

Dönitz must have taken my advice to heart...

In fact, the purpose of this second phase of the exercise is to test the survivability of submarines in the face of joint anti-submarine warfare - Germany had an example of unrestricted submarine warfare during World War I, but was suppressed by the Allied joint escort. Dönitz, who was still an ordinary submarine captain at the time, was once a prisoner in the hands of the Allied escort fleet.

It was for this reason that he knew how big a threat destroyers posed to submarines, so he thought of using anti-submarine joint exercises to teach his talented but seemingly lacking calm captains a lesson. However, the German destroyer fleet used as sparring partners was too poor. In a six-to-four situation, they were defeated miserably by the submarines. Even Dönitz could not understand it.

Although the British anti-submarine forces were not very strong at the beginning of the war, allowing German submarines to achieve considerable results, even without the eyes of later generations, judging from the minds of current commanders, it is only a matter of time for Britain to strengthen its anti-submarine forces. After all, its naval foundation is there. Submarines cannot be used as decisive battle weapons, which means they are doomed to never become mainstream, but the German submarine forces fought too smoothly at the beginning of the war, so that everyone can see that they are a little bit forgetful and arrogant.

I looked at those confident submarine captains and said, "Although you are the aces, tomorrow I will let you taste the bitterness of defeat. Smooth fighting for too long can easily make people arrogant. I think this is also the reason why Dönitz accepted the proposal for this exercise."

Pride makes people regress! It is always good to accept setbacks early. Dönitz wanted his captains to calm down, while I wanted the submarine commanders, including Dönitz, to pay attention to the threat from the three-dimensional search in advance, so as not to be caught off guard in the later stage.

Because at that time, except for me, who could have known that the German submarine force, which was so powerful in the early days of the war and was even interpreted by later generations as the "legendary Bermuda Devil's Triangle", would be completely suppressed by hundreds of Allied escort aircraft carriers, thousands of anti-submarine ships, and tens of thousands of patrol aircraft in the later stages of the war, and even surfacing to breathe with a snorkel was a great luxury? How many submarine officers and soldiers launched the final attack on the Allied escort team with despair after saluting the national flag for the last time in their home port...

Okay, that’s getting a bit off topic.

The plan for the second phase of the exercise was actually formulated by me based on my own ideas and practices, as well as some combat examples I had learned before. Although it was written by the staff officer, I still explained the main ideas to him in full.

Compared to the current single anti-submarine means carried out by destroyers, my sea-air integration seems a bit too imaginative, but in fact, I am only a few years ahead of time. This has become a normal thing in the late war, and with the current capabilities, it is completely possible. After the supplement and polishing by professional staff, the captains who saw my plan couldn't help but admire it, not to mention the current Bangtai and destroyer captains... As the explanation of the exercise plan became more and more in-depth, the eyes of the destroyers became brighter and brighter, while the expressions of the U-boat captains gradually became serious.

I heard them occasionally whispering to each other about the response plan for the new anti-submarine exercise plan, but a few minutes of discussion alone would not have any effect! Tomorrow is destined to be a wonderful reversal...

Dönitz turned his head and looked at me. He had lost the nonchalance he had during the day and his face was now very serious. I smiled at him "gently".

At night, the four submarines each took over their own commanders, and then dived into the depths of the ocean in the darkness, and disappeared.

The captain and I stood on the bridge and watched the Sea Wolves leave.

"How did you feel about today's exercise?" The captain leaned on the railing and turned to ask me, "I see that you don't look well. What's wrong? Do you have any psychological trauma?"

"How can there be none?" I gave him an unpleasant look. "After all, I have tasted the taste of torpedoes. Even if I know it is fake, I will feel uncomfortable!

"But Captain, you sound as if you are in a better mood?" I turned around and said to him face to face. I don't know who was the one who got angry after seeing the destroyer's performance.

“Hahaha, yes,” he laughed, “To be honest, I didn’t expect this to happen.”

"Our destroyers are really unreliable." I smiled and shook my head helplessly. "I really have to rely on myself."

"You had already spotted the submarine by then," the captain said with certainty. "I noticed that your expression changed after you returned to the bridge."

"Hmm?" I nodded. "In fact, I had already discovered and locked onto the U-boats when I was pouring coffee for General Dönitz."

"Oh? Then how far did you find it?" the captain asked with interest.

"Today I tried it underwater and it was about 3 nautical miles, but in fact I can distinguish periscope targets on the sea surface at a longer distance." I thought about it and said, "If it is used to avoid torpedoes, it should be enough."

"But three nautical miles is not a very long distance. It's still a bit dangerous. Your turning radius is too large after all."

"Yes," I nodded. "So I will try my best to improve my underwater detection capabilities. This capability can be improved. My current detection and locking distance on the sea surface is about 20 nautical miles."

"Then keep working on it."

"Captain, go to bed early. There will be an exercise tomorrow." I said with a smile

"Well, I'll go down first."

"Good Captain"

··· ···

The next morning, the fleet weighed anchor in the morning light and gradually sailed out of the anchorage.

Today's escort formation was very different from yesterday's. Under Bangtai's new order, three destroyers surrounded me tightly in the center from the beginning, with two in front and one behind. The remaining three destroyers were deployed in a line in front of the formation. We entered the submarine activity area as if we were facing a great enemy. Another difference was that this time there were two surface reconnaissance planes flying from me hovering in the sky - I can carry four seaplanes, which are divided into two groups, taking turns to search and guard in the sky.

Well, it seems to be a sunny day today, and the sea water is very transparent.

"General Dönitz, what do you think the result will be this time?" I walked up to him confidently and asked, "With the addition of two seaplanes..."

Dönitz looked at me and said with a smile, "Ms. Bismarck, after the director's arrangement yesterday, I seem to be a little worried about my subordinates. I heard that it was you who came up with the exercise plan, and I have to admire you, but!" He suddenly changed the subject, "I still say the same thing, there is no winner or loser before the result comes out, and we have to fight for everything... I believe in my subordinates!"

Well then - let's wait and see.

The captain and Dönitz were still on the bridge watching the progress of the situation. From time to time, the officers of the referee group would report the latest developments to them. Originally, based on yesterday's experience, everyone thought that the submarines would still launch attacks after dusk and nightfall. After all, today's weather was much better than yesterday, with high visibility. It would be foolish to launch an attack during the day. However, not long after our fleet arrived at the exercise area, someone immediately reported that they had found traces of submarines.

"What's going on?" Dönitz asked the communications officer in surprise. He felt that his subordinates would not make such a low-level mistake and surface at this time.

"General, the underwater reconnaissance aircraft reported that the shadow of a submarine was found under the water, and the destroyer in front has passed by!" The communications officer immediately returned

The captain and Dönitz immediately focused their attention on me. I was right...

"Okay... I know," Dönitz said helplessly, "You go down first."

"Yes, General!"

I guess I was right, I smiled proudly.

But this really can't be blamed on the U-boat captains. They had never experienced reconnaissance by aircraft in the sky and were not sure about the depth of navigation, so they were easily discovered by the reconnaissance aircraft with the naked eye. If the diving depth is below 100 meters, the chance of being discovered will be greatly reduced. The submarine that was discovered seemed to have just wanted to surface to observe the situation of the fleet with a periscope, but was directly pointed at by the eyes in the sky... It was really unlucky.

Fortunately, the captain of the U-boat was Kretschmer, who was quick to react. When the navigation status of the three destroyers in the front formation changed, he immediately determined that he was exposed - although he did not know how he was exposed.

I heard him give the order quickly without hesitation.

"Dive to 200 meters, turn left, and sail at three knots!"

"understand!"

I sensed that the submarine was about 3 nautical miles to my left, and the destroyer fleet was several miles ahead of me. In fact, there was a lag of several minutes between when they received the report and when Bangtai ordered them to turn around and chase the submarine. Although the U-boat was moving at a snail's pace underwater, it had already sneaked away for a distance by the time the destroyers arrived, thanks to its good concealment and sufficient depth...

"Damn it, what's going on! How did those guys on the destroyer find out?!"

I heard Kretschmer scolding his colleagues fiercely. He had played Z11 around in the last exercise, but this time he was no longer so high-spirited and cynical. That's right... just when he was about to surface for observation, he was discovered for some reason and had to dive down to avoid it. He thought he could avoid it successfully, but the damn destroyers started to actively cry out to the submarine's mortal enemy... How could he not feel aggrieved when he was suppressed? Especially for him, the ace captain.

While writing and drawing on the chart table to calculate the enemy and our positions, he dared not speak loudly and could only swear. Hearing the "ding----" sound every seven or eight seconds (the sound of the active sonar sound waves hitting the submarine hull), the other crew members around him lost their original arrogance and dared not breathe, fearing that they would be heard by the outside ears. They could only look at the shadow on the chair with anxious eyes under the dim red safety light, hoping that he could come up with a solution.

But before they could come up with a solution, the sonar stopped. Kretschmer, who had been mumbling before, suddenly changed his expression and asked in a low voice, "Sonar operator, how is the hydrophone (the earliest primitive simple sonar)?"

"The position is directly behind, sound intensity two... wait, sound intensity three... intensity four! The position is still behind!" The sonar operator was so nervous that he accidentally spoke a little louder, but he was also aware of it and covered his mouth without waiting for the captain to glare at him.

But when he saw the indicator light, his face suddenly changed. He didn't have time to take his hand off and shouted "Sound intensity five!" At the same time, he grabbed the earphone with his other hand and didn't forget to turn off the earphone with the back of his hand. Even though the switch poked the back of his hand, he gasped in pain but quickly bit his lips to prevent himself from making any sound.

Almost at the same time, Kretschmer's expression changed color.

"Three knots! Full left! Now!"

The helmsman in front reacted quickly and the submarine began to turn again. Kretschmer started to look at his watch. About a minute later, a regular "boom!" "boom!" "boom!" "boom!" sound came from behind the submarine. This was the destroyer dropping acoustic training bombs simulating depth charges.

"I dodged this one, but there are still two..." Kretschmer breathed a sigh of relief, but his expression was still serious.

Sure enough, the sonar operator who had just put on his headphones and turned on the switch heard a voice not long after: "Captain, position right front, sound intensity 1... intensity 2..."

"Keep turning left! We must make sure they come from right behind us!"

"Yes! Keep turning left!" The sonar operator in front of us said, trying to suppress the volume...