Eight hundred and fortieth chapters tightened chains
In the blue Atlantic Ocean, in winter, the waves are slightly larger. A 17,000-ton ocean cargo ship is moving at high speed. It is a private cargo ship of the British shipping company, loaded with 50,000 rifles and various guns and ammunition, and is enough to equip the arms of three divisions. It was just made by the US Fire Factory. The reason for choosing a fast cargo ship like it is to sail at a speed of about 18 knots.
From the beginning of the war, the spring of ocean-going cargo ships, especially fast ocean-going cargo ships, has arrived. After all, it is at least 50% or even twice as fast as other ships. It may take half a month to arrive. It can travel within 10 days at most. In the war moment when every minute is necessary, fast cargo ships are extremely competitive.
Habernah stood at the bow of the ship, and he liked this feeling very much. When the sea breeze blew, he watched the bow cut the waves, and the cargo ship moved forward quickly. Every minute, every hour, and every day, it means that the golden pound seemed to be waving to him. He had already made a 3-pound business this month, and the price and subsidies for cargo shipments have increased greatly. According to this, at most one and a half years, he would be able to recover costs and buy another cargo ship at that time. In that case, he could complete the rapid accumulation of capital.
Haberna didn't know that when he was yy's development towards the future, the sea wolf was already staring at him. A single cargo ship was discovered by the sea wolf pack as early as 20 nautical miles away. After confirming that there was no escort, a sea wolf was left to deal with him. The other six rushed to another target, and the two targets in front were less than 30 nautical miles away. Behind was a fleet of three 10,000-ton cargo ships, with a far tonnage far exceeding this one, and transporting some fabrics and basic industrial materials. Relatively speaking, it was more important and had higher results.
In the plan of the General Staff Headquarters, all cargo ships are divided into several levels. The military is the highest, which can directly enhance the combat effectiveness of the British army. For Germany, it poses great threats. Some raw materials and military supplies related to military industry are second-class. As for materials and ordinary guarantees, from this aspect, military merits can be calculated and reached a certain level, certain medals can be issued, or even promotion levels can be promoted.
Of course, if there is precious metal, it is super, which will attract most sea wolves. Even Bohr cannot refuse to capture it. After all, when precious metals such as gold are very valuable, they can be traded as international same-sex currencies. Is capturing much better than sinking ships? Take this 17,000 tons of cargo ship for example, even if it transports 5,000 tons of silver, it is enough to make people jealous.
The 7 submarines attacked in a vast area of more than 200 nautical miles of housing. The first one to start the attack was the submarine smu74 next to the Blue.
At 9:20 am, the 17,000 tons of blue that was advancing in the calm route suddenly rang. The ship was covered with military supplies, and 100 army soldiers were escorted. The soldiers responsible for protecting the deck suddenly found traces of torpedoes. One of them rang the alarm, and all the army soldiers came out, and some were shooting guns at the sea.
Unfortunately, things are irreversible. When the torpedo was discovered, the torpedo was less than 150 meters away from the ship. At this distance, the torpedo running at high speed was unsolvable in front of cargo ships without self-defense firepower. No attack could change the fact that the ship was hit.
A 450mm torpedo hit the cargo ship one or two minutes later. Not only did it hit the center of the ship, but it also exploded a large hole of more than 3 meters 1 meter below the waterline. Although it blocked the explosion of the torpedo and did not break into two pieces due to the torpedo, the cargo ship's sea water exceeds tens of tons per second, which still capsizes the cargo ship quickly. This is a cargo ship, not a warship, and there is no certain amount of damage.
Haberna was desperate. He almost watched his ship with his own eyes, being hit or even sinking into the water. He shouted in vain, not only without any help, but the ship sank into the sea inch by inch, including him, a ship owner who might have a limitless future.
The Blue Sinking Speed was so fast that when he was silent, the surroundings were filled with emergency diving personnel, less than 15% of them escaped from the vortex of the shipwreck. The rest followed the Blue cargo ship and sank to the bottom of the sea, including the Blue Soldier, who once wanted to continuously expand production and obtain huge rewards.
The sea ruthlessly swallowed a 17,000-ton fast cargo ship, but there was no change. The north wind was blowing, and the waves were still so turbulent.
One hour later, three 13,000-ton cargo ships took over in another channel 30 nautical miles away. Because of partial modifications, these ships had some artillery of about 100 mm, which was enough to deal with huge pirates and high-speed cargo ships. The sea wolves surrounded them in the encirclement. When the six sea wolves shot torpedoes at the cargo ship at different positions, the result was already destined.
No ship could run out, and it even sank faster than the previous Blue. Several of the ships were hit by two torpedoes and were directly defeated by huge torpedoes.
More people did not run away in this fleet and sank into the cold Atlantic Ocean with the merchant ships. Even if the rest were not rescued within a few hours, the cold Atlantic Ocean would let them know the power of nature.
During the naval battle, most of the casualties that fell into the water were not drowned. Many people who jumped down still had time to get a life jacket. However, in the winter Atlantic Ocean, the water temperature was extremely hot. In the absence of necessary warmth, the humid and cold sea water would continuously extract the heat from the human body. In the end, most of the heat was frozen to death.
On this day, the sea wolf's activists were sometimes dispersed and sometimes concentrated. Explosions and shouts rang out over the Atlantic Ocean one after another. Finally, when the battle was completely over, the Fourth Squadron attacked a total of 15 of the 17 targets. The other two escaped during the day and took advantage of the night to escape from the range of the sea wolf's cruise. By the time the Fourth Squadron discovered, they had already escaped 120 nautical miles.
120 nautical miles is not a particularly long voyage, especially the two ships are not fast cargo ships. If you chase them, you can catch up in at most 20 hours. Alto was originally planning to catch up, but a new order came from the far-sea fleet, so he had to give up. Compared with the escape, the new mission is more tempting and more delicious.
This time, it took 27 hours, sailing 370 nautical miles, and crossing a large-scale maritime battle. Finally, it ended successfully in the afternoon of the next day. The Fourth Squadron achieved a successful success. Seven submarines sent out a total of 107 torpedoes. At the cost of loss, they finally sunk 43 ships, with a displacement of nearly 310,000 tons. At this point, the British maritime transportation industry was severely damaged. The total number of British merchant ships in this era was only a few million tons, and this time it was almost one-twentieth.
You should know that the current shipbuilding capacity of the entire UK, except for the production of main ships and warships, is only a month. This number is far greater than the number of one month. Even merchant ships launched in half a year or a year may not be so large.
In the later battles, Germany's infinite submarine warfare only sank a merchant ship with a total tonnage of 12 million tons in two years. However, in such a short day, it only had more than 300,000 tons. This was just a squadron and 7 submarines. The Sea Wolf was far from reaching the level of 100 or even 200 submarines in the plan. Why is there such a big difference?
In fact, in later battles, sea wolves performed well, but did not play the real role of sea wolves. Those ships were all on their own actions and on various routes. Many times, their battles were a kind of luck. When they encountered wandering and patrol, they were lucky, but they could not meet them most of the time. Even if they encountered them, many times, they had to be sure whether it was a British ship. Sometimes, because of sinking the cruise ship, they would cause some trouble. The United States used this as an excuse to protest, making Germany's blockade of Britain unable to continue, and instead pushed sea wolves deep into the Mediterranean area without American ships.
Now, the accurate information has given the sea wolf the correct guidance. The sea wolf does not need to wander aimlessly on the waterway and choose the chance of collision, which will miss many opportunities. With the support of strict intelligence, a series of attacks on ships on several fixed routes in the areas controlled by their respective squadrons can eventually achieve extremely outstanding results. These 27-hour battles are a very simple example.
The attack of the sea wolf came to an end. Today is a day of harvest. There are about 3 similar squadrons. They are all constantly attacking British cargo ships. In just 15 days, a total of 1.25 million tons of British cargo ships were sunk, almost isolating 90% of the cargo channels from the United States to the United Kingdom.
The action of the sea wolf is based on 5 days as a cycle, 5 days of fighting, 2 days of supply and relaxation. In the huge North Atlantic Ocean, Germany secretly established 7 submarine supply bases. In addition, some ships suspended by neutral countries and even South American countries were supplied, the sea wolf was able to maintain strong fighting spirit almost every day. These have dealt a huge blow to the UK. The chains tied to the British necks seem to be increasing. Half a month of supplies and supplies are just a foundation, and next, when the chains become tighter, they will die. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!