Battle of the Third Reich
v5 Chapter 22: lucky
Elegantly lifted the exquisite Mingyongle blue and white dragon-shaped tea cup in front of you, gently lifted the floating leaf petals floating on the water with the lid, and the familiar jasmine fragrance was refreshing in the air.
Xu Jun narrowed his eyes slightly, and took a sip of sweet tea. The long-lost feeling of comfort made him take a long breath.
The young imperial ducái put down the teacup and leaned his body against the soft back of the gorgeous seat.
"Prince Eugen was attacked by a torpedo of the British Royal Navy destroyer. Weiler, are you familiar with torpedoes?"
Xu Jun's eyes glanced at the chief staff on the side of the sofa. The wise chief of staff is now clumsyly learning Xu Jun's previous actions to use the teacup to skim off the floating leaves of the tea.
Weierle has always been very curious about the things from the mysterious East. The skillful and natural movement of the head of state should be the etiquette of the oriental people when they drink this aromatic beverage. It seems to be very elegant. The learned master of the staff Of course, you have to practice it yourself.
"Oh? Torpedo?"
Weierle raised his eyebrows slightly, raised his head to think about it, and then resolutely answered.
"I don't understand at all. My head."
After talking about it, the elders of the staff began to bow their heads to continue his skimming tea practice.
"Are you familiar? Major Solens, ah, yes, of course you will be familiar. You are a naval officer."
Xu Jun smiled and talked to a young navy major who stood upright at his desk.
"Yes, head, I am familiar with that kind of weapon."
The young major reverently replied that standing in front of the young head of empire like him, he looked a little bit cautious.
"Well, the topic seems to be far away, and continue to report. Where did you talk about it? Oh... yes, Prince Eugen was attacked by torpedoes. So how did she escape that disaster later?" Xu Jun Asked with a smile.
"My head, this question is really a bit... marvelous..." The Navy Major replied respectfully.
Dozens of snow-white trails on the turquoise waters of the North Atlantic approached the huge ship of Prince Eugen.
Afternoon sunlight penetrates the sky, and the billowing smoke is shining on the sparkling sea, and the beautiful feather-like trails flash a charming gleam.
But in the eyes of the German naval officers standing on the tall bridge of Prince Eugen, those pearl-like glitters are clearly the light of the blade of the death scythe. These feather-like white trails hide the destruction and the death.
The prince Eugen is fleeing. This is the common answer that all German naval officers jumped into when they saw this scene.
There was no time to avoid, nor space to avoid, the officers could only watch the group of death wings approaching themselves quickly.
The torpedo was close to 150 meters. At this time, the sailors on the deck also noticed the fast approaching death, and there was a sudden cry of exclamation on the deck.
Feng. Captain Hertz looked at the scene in agony, and now his heart was full of blame and remorse for himself.
I made an unforgivable mistake, and the pride of being a captain of a heavy cruiser blinded my eyes. I forgot that the result of disregarding any enemy on the battlefield may bring myself to death. Valuable experience in exchange for blood.
The scene of his warship being bombarded into pieces by the Royal Navy ship during the Battle of Norway appeared to Feng again. In front of Hertz, is that scene to be repeated in front of yourself again and again?
The faces of more than thirty sailors who died in that battle flashed in front of his eyes. He once vowed to make the British **** and bloody, but now he has not only avenged anyone, but may also make more Many young lives are gone, Feng. Hertz felt his heart hurt like a knife.
"captain!"
The first officer shouted to Feng. Hertz dragged her thoughts back to reality.
"No time to dodge!"
Feng. Hertz suddenly sobered up, he also assumed the task of the captain of this battleship, as long as he was the captain of this battleship, he would be responsible for all the crew on this battleship.
"Immediately sound the collision report, order the bottom tank personnel to immediately prepare to retreat, and the deck personnel each seek concealment!"
Feng. Hertz ordered loudly.
"Observe, Captain!"
The first officer rushed to the microphone. The piercing crash report immediately echoed over the battleship.
The sailors on the deck hurried to the shelter and cabin nearest to them. Most of the sailors didn't even know what happened.
The usual strict training played a role at this time, and the sailors skillfully followed the steps of the usual training to quickly and orderly execute the command of the captain.
"That's too late!"
Feng. Hertz stood on the bridge observation deck looking at the four white trails and scrambled like lightning against the smooth bulwark of Prince Eugen, while the sailors on the deck were running hurriedly.
"It's over!"
Feng. Hertz couldn't help closing his eyes, and he couldn't bear to see the **** and horrifying sight coming.
It was a British heavy anti-ship torpedo, which should look like the mk7 type, but it might be the older mk5 type, of course this is not important.
The key lies in the attacking power of the British torpedo, because the rich and rich British Royal Navy Torpedo Manufacturing Bureau stuffed a full 340 kilograms of high-energy zha medicine in the hard warhead of the six or seven meters long iron guy.
What is this concept? The destructive power of 340 kilograms of high-energy zha medicine is enough to level an ordinary block, or to instantly demolish a solid four-story building.
A large torpedo of this kind can easily blast a 5,000-ton class civilian commercial ship without armor into two sections, or open a mouth in any battleship that is less than the battleship's armor strength, the size of the mouth is according to the tonnage of the victim and the thickness of the armor It ranges from falling into a car to falling into a team of tanks.
At the beginning of the war, the Royal Navy’s Battleship Royal Oak was hit by four torpedoes in Scarpa Bay, and the German g7e electric torpedo was only loaded with 200 kg of Zha medicine. One can imagine that this 340 kg How terrible the destructive power of the charged torpedo will be.
The German pocket battleship Lüzov is still lying on Kiel's platform, and she only hit a British torpedo, but the stern almost broke off on the spot.
Feng. Hertz did not dare to imagine what would happen if a dozen of these torpedoes hit Prince Eugen. Prince Eugen was just a heavy cruiser, and the side armor was only 82 mm.
What is more pitiful is that even this side armor belt only reaches about half a meter below the waterline, and the deeper position has no other protection except the thin hull, and the torpedo attack position is exactly There.
Although Feng. Hertz is very confident in the ruggedness and detailed watertight design of the German battleship, but he absolutely does not believe that he can survive more than two torpedoes, not to mention the dense crowd now.
Feng. Hertz closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the moment when she was hit by the torpedo.
But after a few seconds, nothing happened, there was no vibration, no explosion, no screaming or exclaiming.
Feng. Hertz opened her eyes in disbelief. What appeared in the line of sight was the dumbfounded faces of the men looking at the sea.
"What happened?"
Feng. Hertz looked down at the water on the side of the ship, and as a result the trail of the British torpedo hit his eyes again. The four snow-white trails were close at hand, as if he had seen the lightning rush towards the ship. wall.
But the next scene is Feng. Hertz understood why his subordinates showed that kind of dementia, because he also went into a crash at that moment.
The wake extended to the side of the bulwark and disappeared. . . . Then nothing happened.
Feng. Hertz looked at the scene in surprise, and couldn't believe his eyes.
He clearly saw the fascinating foam trail hit the bulwark, and then was smashed into pieces by the waves brought by the warship, but there was no sign of being hit.
"What's going on..."
Feng. Hertz had never encountered such a thing, nor had he heard of a similar situation. He and his officers were completely confused.
"Come and see, all the torpedoes have gone through, all through the bottom of the boat, haha..."
Suddenly a loud cry came from the other side of the bridge. Feng. Hertz and his men turned their heads quickly, and saw the heroic Randolph Young Corrector standing on the lookout on the other side of the bridge while waving his arms while maintaining his coolest posture.
The naval officers rushed to the other side of the bridge and looked out over the water.
Indeed, more than a dozen torpedo trails are rushing away in the distance, and it looks like the torpedo launched by Prince Eugen himself.
"The British have set the wrong torpedo deep."
The first responding first officer could not help but cheer loudly.
"The stupid British people almost scared me to death."
"God, I have never found the British so cute. You say yes, if it was not for them to make such mistakes, I really can't imagine how we would end."
"How could it be a deep error? This shouldn't happen."
"You go and ask the British people. Are you sorry that you haven't been bombed to heaven, idiot, go back to your post."
The officers talked about what happened in front of them, but did not find that the captain's face became more and more ugly.
"All the people went back to their posts, the news was released, and they were ready to fight immediately. The target, the two British destroyers, ordered the turret to fire."
Feng. Hertz growled and gave a series of orders to the men who had just fled and were congratulating each other.
He feels a little bit embarrassed and angry now. This unsuccessful torpedo attack of the Royal Navy has finally restored the captain to his state during the Battle of Norway.
Feng. For the first time, Hertz exposed his true face to all his men, the shrewd, powerful, cunning, ruthless Feng. Captain Hertz.
The British torpedo raid made him very angry, thinking that his own mistakes would cause a tragedy, Feng. Hertz was out of breath.
For him, this attack caused him to suffer another humiliation in his military career. He must use actions to make up for his mistakes, and use the blood of the enemy to cleanse the shame they brought him.
Although he still hasn't understood why the British torpedoes are wrong, this is not important, and he doesn't want to know the reason. The only thing he knows now is that the British must pay for this kind of behavior.
Feng. Hertz looked coldly at the two British destroyers that were constantly maneuvering to escape the German warship firenet.
In the eyes of his subordinates, the captain who had always made them a little uncomfortable suddenly seemed to have changed personally, the serious look, the firm and cold eyes in his eyes. . . .
All the men couldn't help but secretly repositioned the young colonel in their hearts and looked at Feng. The kind of chilling fierce eyes in Hertz's eyes, many people began to mourn for the officers and soldiers on the two destroyers that almost killed them, it seems that they were dead.
"Christian, this is a warship cared for by the goddess of luck, with unparalleled good luck. So, you must make her a member of the great warship in history, otherwise I will be too sorry for her."
Randolph walked slowly to Feng. Hetz said, patting the captain's shoulder behind him.
"I don't know if I deserve it or not to continue driving her on the sea. This time I made a fatal mistake, and the Admiralty will definitely punish me."
"It doesn't matter, I will explain to the head of state. However, even if you will be punished in the future, you still control her captain, you are responsible for her, remember this is the first battle of Prince Eugen ."
"I see, Randolph, thank you."
"All the secondary artillery fired and tore up the two destroyers. All the commanders followed me into the armored control tower, and the others held their posts. Gentlemen! If one day the Prince Eugen is in the naval history, we will be proud to others Tell us that we are a member of that battleship. For that day to come, let us fight this first battle and let the British taste the anger of this battleship."
"Follow the order! Sir!" all the officers and men present roared and answered.
"Oh, this is the case, but I still don't understand. At that time, there were no other warships to remind Prince Eugen. Didn't the British find torpedoes launched by the British? In addition, why did the British make mistakes?"
Xu Jun lightly asked after a sip of fragrant jasmine tea.
"This, my head, sounds stupid.
Commander Lütjens explained in this report, because the first and second destroyers were handed over to us when the two destroyers were assigned first.
At that time, no one thought that the two ships would directly rush up like this, and everyone thought that the other would solve the two humble destroyers. Everyone's attention was focused on the cruisers in the British fleet, and only then would they be The two destroyers drilled the loophole.
Commander Lütjens stated in the report that he was willing to take all responsibility for this error.
In fact, not only did none of the warships discover that the British destroyer had fired torpedoes, but until the end of the battle, none of the warships knew that Prince Eugen had been attacked by torpedoes, because other warships did not see the torpedo tail shot towards Prince Eugen. .
It was not until the end of the battle that the destroyer and Prince Eugen submitted their reports until everyone knew about it.
The group of torpedoes passed through the bottom of the prince Eugen and was hit by the first destroyer fleet coming from the rear of the side of the fleet. They did not know where the torpedoes came from. The result was a mess.
According to their records, they avoided all the torpedoes. At first, they thought it was a British submarine. They were really nervous for a while. If they knew that it was a torpedo passing through the bottom of Prince Eugen's ship, the destroyer would not even hide.
As for why the British set the wrong depth, according to the only surviving bridge personnel on those two destroyers, the sailor was a herald on the Avengers. According to the sailor's confession and our analysis afterwards, we finally found this to be the case.
The two destroyers were originally intended to attack the two battleships Scharnhorst, but later, for unknown reasons, the target was suddenly changed to the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen.
Perhaps because of the tension, the British forgot to modify the original fixed depth and fired the torpedo.
It is also possible that they misidentified Prince Eugen as a Scharnhorst-class battleship. You must know that the heavy cruiser is really like a battleship.
It is normal for such a misjudgment to occur during the high-speed movement of a destroyer, not to mention in that state of tension.
The draught of the Scharnhorst class is ten meters, while the draught of the Prince Eugen is only six meters. The difference between the two is four meters, and the result is like this. "
"Oh, that's what it is, hehe. It really is the legendary lucky warship."
Xu Jun murmured with a smile.
"Ok?"
Weierle, who was drinking tea on the side, raised his head and asked in doubt.
"Head of State, the legend you said before..."
"Nothing, Lord Chief of Staff, just talk casually, huh."
The head of state smiled to the chief of staff to raise the tea cup in his hand.
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