Chapter 23: V4CH37: Hunting
(TL: didn't have time to edit this, probably gonna be my last one, losing motivation. so to the guy who asked how long im going to continue this, I lied)
"Briefing." As soon as Giselle got into the command cabin, she loudly inquired to the deputy captain.
"Captain, the listening room reported that they found ships heading our way directly ahead, all of them are high-speed spiral prizes, they should be warships. According to our current position and speed I calculated that we must be in contact with them." Kesselring, holding a course chart, replied seriously, "Captain. Our present position is very passive."
Giselle took the chart and went to the chart table in his command seat and spread it out. At this time, Xu Jun also drilled through the pressure-resistant cabin hole and entered the command module.
"The marshal has entered the command cabin." The chief of navigation called out loudly from the side. All the officers and men in the command module nodded their heads to salute Xu Jun.
"Everyone, please continue your respective work." Xu Jun waved his hand to those officers and enlisted men, signaling them to continue their duties, and then he walked to Giselle's side.
"How's the situation, Mr. Boat Captain." Xu Jun looked at Giselle's slightly frowning brow and asked.
"Very bad, now we are in the middle of two restricted areas, on one side is the Luftwaffe's operational patrol area, we may be discovered if we enter because we don't have enough power to keep diving for that long again. On the other side was a Norwegian minefield, and we were looking for death if we entered. I picked the most secluded route, a narrow blind spot, and I couldn't figure out how I could meet the enemy here." Giselle said in confusion.
"Have you confirmed that it is the enemy?"
"Yes, Excellency Field Marshal, there are not many battleships in the German Navy patrolling the sea now, at most some large patrol boats or torpedo boats, and they never choose this route to patrol."
"You mean this is a hidden route?" Xu Jun asked.
"Yes. Marshal. Now I want to raise the submarine to periscope depth, use the periscope to determine the type of target, and then consider countermeasures." Giselle respectfully spoke to Xu Jun.
"You are the captain of the boat, it is up to you. There is no need to ask my opinion, I am still a layman in submarine warfare."
"You are too modest." Giselle nodded his head in greeting and then turned around and gave the order, "Engines begin to slow down, half car forward, submarine rise to periscope depth. Mr. Kesselring, order all into battle position."
"As ordered, Mr. Captain. Engines decelerating, half speed ahead. Begin surfacing, 30 meters. 25 meters. 20 meters. 15 meters. 12 meters. Stop surfacing. Restore elevator to original position and maintain stability. Captain! We have reached periscope depth." Kesselring reported loudly.
"Raise the periscope and report the distance from the listening room." Giselle then ordered.
"As ordered. Mr. Captain. Raise the periscope." Kesselring went to a control panel on the wall of the boat and pressed a button.
"The periscope is up, Mr. Captain." With a burst of electric motors, the periscope slowly rose from the algae well in the middle of the command module, its stainless steel-made observation mirror housing gleaming.
"This is the listening room. The enemy fleet is on our side, bearing 012, speed 15 knots, heading 070," Wolfgang reported over the ship's intercom.
"Okay, I'll see what we've encountered." Giselle turned back the brim of his soft combat cap, then moved up to the eyepiece of the periscope to take a closer look.
"It's a small fleet." Giselle turned the multiplier conversion dial on the handle.
"One large warship, presumably of the cruiser class. Four destroyers, can't identify the ship class yet, but they should be British warships from their appearance. Range 10,000 meters, speed about 15 knots. They are doing a turning maneuver. We are in trouble." Giselle said seriously.
"They are doing S maneuver to go forward, our speed is too slow to break their course, they will surely find us. Skipper, what do we do now." Kesselring asked nervously as he recorded the scale readings shown on the periscope.
"Mark the enemy's position and calculate the time of contact." Giselle ordered coldly.
"As ordered, Captain." The navigator at the side hurriedly marked the approximate position of the enemy on the chart, then took out a calculation ruler and calculated it on a piece of draft paper. Giselle turned the periscope around and looked behind the submarine.
"They've spotted that fleet too, and the periscopes on U38 and U43 are up."
"Captain, we will be in effective attack range in ten minutes, should we launch an attack." Kesselring asked from the sidelines.
"We will be in the enemy's anti-submarine patrol circle in eighteen minutes. Skipper." The navigator also came up with the data.
Giselle did not answer them as he walked up to Xu Jun. "My marshal, we are now in a very big trouble, and I am very sorry that the course I chose has pushed you into danger."
Without waiting for Giselle to finish, Xu Jun interrupted Giselle's words with a smile.
"Captain Giselle, I know what you want to say. Are we unable to avoid conflict with each other now? Is it possible to take concealment measures."
"I'm very sorry, we are now in the other side's course, according to our current speed it is impossible to get out of their detection range before the other side finds us in any case. The depth of the water here also exceeds our maximum dive depth, and the tactic of sitting on the bottom to conceal ourselves cannot be used." Giselle replied.
"Then go to war with them." Xu Jun continued with a smile and said, "Since battle cannot be avoided, we should be brave enough to fight. There is no other second way to go."
"But Admiral, they have four destroyers and one cruiser, our chances of winning are really not high, and there is a possibility that we will be ...."
"Captain Giselle, why are you suddenly starting to go soft. Haha. Please don't worry about me. Since the enemy is already in front of us, even if how powerful he is, even if we will lose our lives for it, we should face him bravely. We are soldiers, and dying while fighting the enemy is the best place for a soldier to be. Fight, my skipper, and if God has destined me to die today, I will face death with a smile, for I die on the battlefield, and a German marshal should fall on the front line of battle, not on the way to escape. So, my captain, feel free to fight, maybe you can still perform miracles, because I have not yet received the notice that God has called me, how could I die in the hands of those few tiny warships. Want to kill me will have to pay a high price. Scrooges like now who are only willing to take out a few small ships can't possibly hurt me, it would take at least their entire navy to finish me off, hahahaha."
Xu Jun's words made the entire command module relax, and a heartfelt smile appeared on all faces. Yes, with this apostle of God in what else can be worried about, luck and miracles have always accompanied this German military god, and this time will certainly not be an exception. Maybe it will be a miracle again.
"You heard the marshal's words, we have to fight for the honor of soldiers. Although I'm not as great as the marshal, but it's still too little to take out my submarines these warships, hahaha." Giselle first gave a respectful military salute to Xu Jun, then turned around in a spirited manner and called out to his subordinates in the command cabin.
"Yes, I should be worth a battleship anyhow." Kesselring also jokingly said.
"The battleships are worth the price of a battleship. The navigator also looked up from the chart and chuckled.
"Okay, all get ready. We're going to give them a surprise." Giselle swooped back up to the periscope and watched.
"They're going to start their next turn now, and by the time they're done turning, they'll have about three thousand meters to sail in a straight line, which will be plenty for us."
"Captain Giselle, are you able to contact the other two submarines?" Xu Jun suddenly spoke from the sidelines.
"Ah, what, oh, yes, I can contact them with light signals." Giselle was flabbergasted by Xu Jun's question, but he immediately reacted and replied.
"Then send them a signal. I order the whole fleet to start a war with the enemy, and to ignore the actions of this ship during the battle. They can each launch their own attacks according to their own judgment. This is a siege, free to move and fire, and I will personally award medals to the submarine with the highest record in this battle. Also, they should have the same problem with their torpedoes as we do, and you remember to remind them to take care of the fixed depth to close the magnetic fuse. Just send them that, is that okay?"
"A roundup? Haha, it's going to be a tough roundup, Marshal Sir. You're right, if they still follow us closely like this, then they won't be able to use their full power."
"Then can they be sent to them?"
"Oh, of course you can. As you command, my marshal."
Giselle hurriedly turned the periscope then pressed the signal light switch on the handle to transmit Xu Jun's words to the other two submarines.
"Okay, they've received it, U38 is getting off its current course and it is now retracting its periscope. Erich is such a crafty guy, I wonder what he wants to do this time. u43 is also starting to turn. Okay, now it's our turn to take action. Lieutenant Kesselring, put away the periscope and let's turn the rudder 30 degrees and go full speed. Hopefully, we can get a good position. Order the first torpedo bay to be ready, tube one and two to switch to T1 torpedoes and put the torpedoes in high gear. We are dealing with battleships not merchant ships that look like crawlers." Giselle ordered loudly.
"As ordered, Captain." Kesselring walked towards the periscope maneuvering panel.
"Wait a minute." Xu Jun said, a little embarrassed, "Can you show me how the enemy ships look like? You know I've never used a periscope to look at an enemy ship before."
"Ah, my marshal, of course you can, why didn't you say so earlier. But you don't have much time to observe, if we come any closer, it is likely that the enemy's lookouts will spot the wake of the periscope." Giselle hastily moved out of the way.
"Soon, I just want to see." Xu Jun hurriedly walked to the periscope, he also followed Giselle's example of wearing his hat backwards and put his eyes up to the eyepiece to look out.
"Marshal, the enemy is now in this position." Giselle turned the periscope to the bearing of the British fleet.
"It's still far away, so you can zoom in a few times." Xu Jun hurriedly learned to dial the magnification conversion dial. The few dots in the eyepiece with black smoke suddenly turned into a mighty fleet in front of Xu Jun's eyes.
The two large destroyers were a couple of kilometers apart, one left and one right in front of the other, and in the middle behind was a huge battleship with high chords, painted in black and gray camouflage. Both fore and aft had tall single-legged cross masts with high mast walls. The superstructure did not look at all streamlined, with a large square bridge, two huge main turrets at the front and rear, three tall chimneys sitting in the middle of the battleship, and a seaplane positioned behind the chimneys. Behind this battleship, there were two destroyers on the left and right. This small fleet is strutting on the surface of the sea.
Xu Jun left the periscope, then Kesselring pressed the maneuvering button and lowered the periscope from the surface of the sea.
"What do you think. My marshal." Giselle asked from the sidelines.
"Splendid, I didn't recognize what class of warship it was, but I knew it had enough qualifications to be our prey, hahaha."
"Yes, my marshal, that is a London class heavy cruiser. Looking at his paint job it would be the Devonshire, a 13,000 ton big guy. Those destroyers are not so good, either S-class or V-class, all old-fashioned goods. No wonder, their most advanced tribal class was taken by you at Dunkirk, and now they only have these things to send out." After saying that Giselle picked up the cabin phone. "Wolfgen, let me know immediately if the other side turns."
"As ordered, Mr. Captain."
"Make sure to keep a close eye on the other side's movements."
"Understood, Mr. Captain."
Giselle put down the microphone of the intercom, then ran to the chart table and took a ruler to scratch the attack course on the chart.
"From the way the enemy has reacted so far, it looks like we could pull off a sneak attack. They haven't turned on their active sonar, which means they haven't spotted us yet. If we follow this current line, we can get into the launch position and ambush them before they do, and if there are no surprises, I believe we can take out that cruiser." Kesselring said excitedly.
"No, the first thing we have to deal with are those destroyers, that heavy cruiser has about one hundred and eleven millimeters of armor, although our torpedoes can tear through such thick armor but to sink her we have to get three or more hits to do so. We must fire all four torpedoes from the first torpedo bay in unison to achieve this effect, and then we will have no torpedoes to deal with the counterattack of those destroyers, I think we should take out the destroyers first, and for the cruisers we can just wound her. When we finish the destroyers we can take her out slowly." The chief of navigation said on the side.
"No matter what the target is, I will only attack the one that is the easiest to attack at that time. The situation on the water is changing so much that mentioning any plan now would be a pipe dream." Giselle stopped the discussion between the two subordinates with a single word.
"Captain, the torpedoes are ready. We have three minutes to go to attack position."
"Very well, what is the situation of the other two submarines."
"Not sure yet, they both seem to have disappeared."
"Yeah, well, it looks like they all found their attack positions too. My marshal, we now only have to wait patiently for the enemy to enter our guns." Giselle smiled and spoke to Xu Jun.
"Haha, I have plenty of patience, you have to remember the torpedoes set the depth ah. Don't hit the bottom of the sea again." Xu Jun smiled and said, "I hope we can succeed, otherwise there will be hundreds of depth charges falling on our heads in a few minutes."
"Don't worry, my marshal."
U37 made her way to the intended launch position in 15 meters of water at a top speed of 7 knots as she drew a beautiful arc on the chart. Once she reached the launch position she shut down her engines and the large ocean-going submarine glided forward for several hundred meters before slowly coming to a stop.
The U37 was now hovering just a few meters above the surface waiting for her prey to arrive, floating there silently, with no movement except for a few bubbles rising from the torpedo ports that had been opened from time to time. In the distance, the rumbling of the battleship's engines was clearly distinguishable, and the rhythmic whistling of the water as the battleship spiraled down and churned at high speed beat against the hard shell of the submarine.
Suddenly, a large high-pressure bubble was ejected from the torpedo launch port, followed by two silvery torpedoes that left the launch tube in turn, they first paused in the seawater, as if they were not used to the cold temperature of the seawater, and then with a whistle of the propeller, the two torpedoes scurried forward and began to scramble towards their target. Before the first two rounds could leave the submarine's field of view, two more torpedoes were fired immediately afterwards.
Having fired all of her first torpedoes, the U37 came back from dead silence and she began to slowly disengage from her current position as two 1000 hp motors began to propel the large submarine toward her next attack position.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone