In order to fully test the threat that submarines would pose to transport ships during a long voyage, the British were very meticulous in formulating the entire exercise plan. In this plan, the British would simulate sending out three fleets

, each fleet departs from different places, namely Singapore, Giant

Port and Batavia. The fleet size is about 3 to 4 ships, and the transport ships departing from Singapore will be escorted by destroyers. The average speed of the entire fleet is about 7 to 8 knots, which is the speed of most transport ships.

Standard ocean speed. The three fleets will pass through the entire South China Sea and East China Sea, and eventually reach Yantai and other places.

In this exercise, the Chinese Navy can dispatch 6 submarines to intercept and kill British transport ships while they are sailing. Of course, the torpedoes will not be charged and will be sunk as long as they hit them. In addition to the escort fleet, the British can also

Deploy about 10 destroyers or light cruisers in this area

The mission of these warships is to hunt submarines. The British want to know how the Royal Navy's anti-submarine capabilities are on the relatively vast sea! In order to make the exercise more challenging, the British said that they can disclose the departure port to participants

Acting Chinese submarine to increase the difficulty.

According to the British idea, submarines generally act alone. It is very difficult to search for each other's merchant ships on the vast sea. Moreover, if a submarine launches an attack underwater, its speed will inevitably be less than 5 knots.

As long as your own fleet maintains a speed of 7 to 8 knots and constantly changes course, the submarine will have no chance. As for launching an attack from the water?

Haha, the British have arranged two pitfalls for China. That is, although only one fleet has escort warships, it does not mean that the other fleets have no weapons! The British specially equipped some transport ships with 12-pound rapid-fire cannons. If the opponent

If a submarine dares to come over, I'm afraid these cannons will surprise the opponent! Another pitfall is that in the memo, the speed of merchant ships is 7 to 8 knots, but the highest speed among these ships reaches 20 knots! In other words, it is necessary

You can completely get rid of your opponent in a short time!

So the British sailed out of the port with confidence, but not long after sailing out, one of the ships in the fleet sailing out of Palembang hit a mine that was not filled with explosives! This poor transport ship

After sailing less than 200 meters out of the port, I was told that it had been "sinked." It turned out that the Chinese Navy did not know the specific details of the opponent.

It was time to go out to sea, but before the exercise started, four submarines were already waiting near Palembang, and mine arrays were deployed on both sides of the narrow seaport. Then a transport ship accidentally bumped into it.

Subsequently, the British began to dispatch minesweepers to begin clearing mines, and the transport ships in Palembang were forced to postpone their voyage.

While the British were clearing mines, except for one submarine that continued to track the Palembang transport fleet, the remaining submarines immediately merged with a submarine that was tracking the Singaporean fleet. There, they would start a formal hunt.

Kill, the opponent has 4 transport ships and 2 destroyers, under the personal command of Goodnow. On the other hand, there are 5 submarines. The first head-on collision between the two sides is about to begin.

The speed of submarines sailing on the water is much faster than these transport ships, which are only about 7 knots. Therefore, ever since Singapore's sailing fleet left the port, it has been under the surveillance of the Chinese Submarine Force. Submarine No. 3 is transporting

The fleet followed from a distance, and when the opponent's destroyer left the formation, it immediately dived, and a destroyer was unable to capture the opponent. After the two sides played many cat-and-mouse games, Goodnow finally gave up.

The opponent planned to sink it, but quietly stayed around the fleet.

"They will launch an attack at night. Under the cover of darkness, the small figure of the submarine will completely blend into the night. They can even surface to launch torpedoes, and our 12-pounder guns are very powerful even with the help of searchlights.

It is difficult to hit the opponent. So we must be more careful." Goodnow reminded us on the first night.

"They are still following us. Yesterday they tried to attack, but fortunately our protection was thorough and they were able to escape. But today, yes today, they will definitely attack." Goodnow said on the second night.

I feel a little weak in my heart.[

On the third and fourth days, the submarine behind them still followed unhurriedly, but the other submarine seemed to be very patient. They just followed behind but did not launch an attack. Sometimes Goodnow could even use a telescope on the mast.

Seeing each other's time travel, they took turns to rest on the submarine deck. And what about the British crew? How can I say that the past few days have been quite miserable? During the day

There is no less work. At night, we have to take turns to stand on the deck and search with the naked eye for possible approaching submarines. Sometimes the other party will suddenly approach the fleet, but in the eyes of the British, this is nothing more than harassment and testing at best. When the British

When the searchlight turned around and swept across the sea, they would dive into the water again, keeping a distance of no more than 3km at night.

"We tried to get rid of the opponent through blackouts and maneuvers. We couldn't see each other in the dark, so we believed that the opponent couldn't see us, but the result was disappointing to us. When the sun rose the next morning

, that submarine reappeared behind us like a ghost! We really don’t know how they kept tracking in the dark night!" Goodnow wrote in his diary.

In Xu Jie's plane, the Japanese Navy had a special unit in World War II. This unit is commonly known as cat's eye. It selects some with abnormal night vision and supplements it with special drugs and diet (such as cod liver oil products) to improve night vision.

Vision. Of course, this improvement is limited. There are often situations where you can’t see clearly or see the wrong thing.

situation, but it is relatively easy to use under the current circumstances. First of all, the tracking distance of submarines is shorter, and the British can see closer at night. Secondly, in this sea area, besides submarines, there are British ships, so there is basically no mistaking the situation.

.The distance between the two sides is generally only about 1 nautical mile. In this case, the possibility of encountering ships from other countries is too low!

Goodnow's "prophecy" finally became a reality on the fifth day. It was a night near the full moon, and the bright moonlight shone on the sea. At about 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, the two destroyers in Goodnow's fleet simultaneously

Two submarines were discovered at 5 o'clock and 8 o'clock in the direction of the convoy! They sailed quickly on the water and rushed directly towards the transport convoy stumbling in the night!

Goodnow immediately ordered the two destroyers to destroy each other separately, not to sink each other, but just to keep them outside the effective range of the torpedoes. The two destroyers turned on all their searchlights to search for the situation on the sea.

Among the continuously rotating light pillars, two submarines

The submarine loomed in the light, and the British filled the gun barrels one by one, and water jets exploded on the sea gate. The two submarines have been trying to find each other's loopholes, but Goodnow's destroyer protected them very well.

The fleet was placed directly behind, so that the submarine could not succeed.

"The situation is wrong! If the submarine wants to launch a torpedo attack, they must dive close, and the underwater speed of the trailing submarine obviously cannot achieve this goal!" Suddenly Goodnow seemed to have thought about something clearly, and just as he was about to order the ship

When the team is evading, the front

Fang's fleet suddenly lit up a red signal light. According to regulations, this was a signal after the transport ship was sentenced to "sink". In a moment, Goodnow finally figured out that all of this was a bait, and the opponent used a submarine to carry out the attack.

Tracking, and then other submarines intercepted and killed the transport convoy from the front.

"There must be a lot of submarines on the other side, at least two. They fired a large number of torpedoes in a very short period of time, forming a fan with lightning strikes from both left and right sides. We were unable to dodge in our haste." Afterwards, the captain of the merchant ship said.

Said this. In less than 10 minutes,

, the British Navy lost 4 transport ships and one destroyer. This destroyer was hit by a torpedo launched by another submarine while chasing one of the submarines. Under the cover of night, the effective range of the artillery was not

It was no farther than a submarine's torpedo, and the two sides were almost in hand-to-hand combat with bayonets.

"If this is an actual battle, we have lost 20,000 tons of ship tonnage and the cargo stored on it in one night." Goodnow said with some worry. "No, Major, what you said is not complete. In addition,

The two fleets each lost one transport ship the night before yesterday. We lost one transport ship in one night.

We have 6 ships, estimated to be about 30,000 tons. And all this is caused by 6 submarines with a total tonnage of less than 4,000 tons!" An officer added. "So far, we have a total of 11 transport ships, and the remaining

There are only 3 submarines left! But the good news is that we destroyed one submarine."

A single submarine can also cause certain damage to the escorting merchant fleet, usually by setting up an ambush in advance on a route that detours the low-speed fleet by sailing at high speed on the sea. If the opponent does not have any weapons, it can also use deck guns to attack, among which

A Chinese submarine

That's what I thought. As a result, when the submarine rushed up, I saw the British on the deck smiling evilly as they opened the canvas, and then several black gun muzzles pointed at the submarine, and then? A submarine fired a torpedo at "

"Took a transport ship before being sunk."

In the end, only 2 transport ships successfully arrived at the port. In this battle, 9 of the 11 transport ships were destroyed in this exercise. The total tonnage reached nearly 50,000 tons. Such a high loss rate naturally made the British feel

France accepted it. When Jericho sent the exercise report to the UK, Fisher decided to set up a special escort agency to deal with the threat posed by submarine warfare. Later, the British government also believed that it was necessary to pay some "appropriate" price

in exchange for cooperation with the Chinese government.
Chapter completed!