Chapter 740 741 Waves in Iceland
Just as Prien's U-type submarine quickly sank into the sea, less than ten kilometers away, a huge British battleship was quickly sailing in the other direction under the protection of several cruisers and destroyers. The sharp bow was raised high by the waves, and the huge artillery pointed majesticly at the position in front.
The entire fleet is not in a state of combat readiness, but the destroyers on the periphery are as if they are facing a great enemy. After all, German submarines often appear in this sea area, and they must be very energetic to guard against possible torpedo attacks. In addition to making the German Navy a powerful existence that attracts the world, their other function is to completely awaken the British Navy.
The layout of this battleship is very strange. Three huge turrets are all concentrated in front of the battleship. As one of the Nelson-class battleships, the battleship Rodney has just been transferred back to the Canadian waters and is ordered to join the local fleet to prepare the driver to fight with the German Navy again.
The British finally recovered from the breath he had held in his heart in Iceland. In fact, the British Royal Navy still had a huge advantage in the number of battleships and the absolute advantage in the tonnage and quantity of combat ships. With these advantages, the British King and his staff felt that it was not impossible to regain the sea control power, and Britain would definitely have the power to fight.
The sea surface of the North Atlantic Ocean always seems to be gray, and the tones here are mixed with some darkness, which makes people feel uncomfortable when they see everything in front of them. The British who have conquered this area and the Germans who are conquering this place all regard this place as an exciting paradise, and everyone who is sleeping here seems to have integrated their cold souls into every view here with resentment, making everything here even darker.
The roar of the engine is definitely a very effective way of hypnosis in the cabin of an old aircraft with poor sound insulation. At least when performing patrol missions, there are rough and endless seas below. After taking off from the airport, everyone will be tortured and drowsy.
Although the airflow in the air is bumping, and the cold outside will still spread into the inside of the plane, making the cockpit very low, this does not affect the sleep that boredom brings to people*.
If this b-17 long-range patrol and reconnaissance aircraft imported from the United States is added to a certain country that advocates original import, then the aircraft will definitely be sold at a very good price. However, this aircraft is obviously not valuable, it is just a small exchange material in the UK-US technical cooperation agreement.
Moreover, this aircraft is not actually the kind of beautiful imported product. Its sound insulation layer was cut to the point where it was outrageous. The materials used for seats were very simple. Even its self-defense weapons were only simplified. The pilots who drove this aircraft only had a very ironic phrase for it: "Old grandma's broken bicycle."
Some British pilots once refused to take off by the huge skin joints when climbing onto this type of aircraft. Some people scraped their clothes by the raised iron in the narrow cabin passage. Compared with the Americans' own B-17, this foreign aid model simplified more than one process, and many edges were not passivated.
However, this type of aircraft can fly, and it is sufficient in number. What's more important is that the United States only provides this disgusting model, do you want it? Therefore, the British Coast Patrol Squadron stationed on Iceland still received 40 such aircraft without any temper and used it to conduct combat patrols at the near end of Iceland's route.
The bomb bay of this aircraft can carry some small bombs inside, and the 30mm cannon on the belly can fire the sea on its own. As long as German submarines are found on the water surface, this aircraft can attack.
Unfortunately, for some reason, the chances of finding German submarines floating on the water were fewer and fewer, but the merchant ships were sunk more. With the roar of His Majesty the King of England, the frequency of coastal patrols became more dense and more aircraft were dispatched.
Compared to the Germans investing in vast land and building their own industrial facilities, it is easy to imagine how difficult it is for the British to build their own base in Iceland that is more poor and lacks resources. The most basic thing is that even bricks and wooden boards are mostly transported from the distant United States - if Germany lacks everything, then the British in Iceland have nothing.
From basic building materials to hundreds of millions of ammunition supplies, various aircraft parts produced in Canada, as well as large machinery for leveling land to build airports and other facilities, the British rely on the help of Americans and finally gained their own foothold in Iceland.
As a result, the British base in Iceland has only built less than one-third of the entire counterattack plan, and it is because of the attack of German submarines, and they are in an embarrassing situation of being in a dilemma.
On the one hand, if we want to expand the scale of Iceland's garrison, build more airports and terminals, and increase the strategic significance of Iceland, we must invest more materials and consume more food, ammunition, and oil, which will inevitably increase the burden on the entire US-Iceland route.
On the other hand, the German submarine threat is becoming more and more serious and uncontrollable. The new U-type submarine is put into war, which makes the British exile government eager to expand Iceland extremely angry. The United States is also worried that once the Iceland route is strangled and paralyzed by the German army, the investment in Iceland will eventually collapse quickly because of its large scale.
Now, in order to avoid this embarrassing situation, the construction of the entire Iceland has now fallen into a strange pause. Half of the construction barracks are empty and the damaged aircraft in the airport are unattended. There are only a few airports near Europe and radar stations that are still busy working, and there are only a few jet fighter squadrons with enough fuel to maintain training and patrol.
Just as Prien missed a British battleship, the British patrol plane also missed Prien. The observer under the sleepy pilot mechanically swept across the sea with a telescope, without finding any abnormalities. At this time, Prien had already sneaked into the 45-meter-deep North Atlantic seabed with his submarine.
But soon their sleepiness was dispelled by the burning wreckage on the sea. The captain flew the plane and hovered in the altitude. The observer used a telescope to observe the burning sea and finally confirmed that it was a transport ship that had just been sunk.
So the captain grabbed his intercom and started calling the duty staff at the ground command center: "I am patrol aircraft No. 4, check the list of the transport ships. Near the coordinates 537,449, we found the wreckage of a ship and requested confirmation."
"This is the ground tower. We are confirming. Please carefully check the nearby waters and prepare to attack the German submarine!" In the headset, the officer on duty at the ground tower immediately issued an order. A few minutes later, it was obvious that the tower had found the information we wanted to know: "Patrol 4, we have confirmed that an oil tanker that was taking risks should be nearby. Please confirm whether it is still there! Please confirm whether it is still on the sea."
The captain smiled bitterly, and immediately replied: "I think this ship is the one who was sunk. The tower."
"..." After getting the bad news, the tower was silent for a moment, followed by a routine conversation. In short, another British supply ship was sunk, and there was no worse news than this.
However, the ground tower seemed to remember something again, and asked Patrol Aircraft No. 4 not to cut off communications: "Park Aircraft No. 4, wait a moment, there should be a squadron coming from the colony. There was no need for patrol aircraft to follow and escort, but there were German submarines nearby, so you'd better go there to help. The location is about 17 kilometers away from your west."
"Okay! Patrol plane No. 4 understands." The captain flew back to this suspicious sea area again. After still not finding any target, he turned around and flew towards the direction of the mission.
"This is Patrol Aircraft No. 4, and no enemy situation is discovered! After changing the route, we continued to fly westward, and it was over!" He withdrew his gaze to the sea, and after communicating, the captain put away the walkie-talkie listlessly, and then drove his plane away from the sea.
At this moment, in the deep sea below the plane, a German submarine was swimming slowly, and fish were passing by it from time to time. Due to the noise, these fish were kept at a considerable distance and never approached the big guy who was very dangerous to them.
Standing in the captain's command position, Prien could only use the faint light emitted from sonar and other equipment to see his entire command room. However, for a veteran who has been in charge of submarine warfare for many years, this environment is the most reassuring environment for him. He held the handle to prevent falling and ordered: "Right-right rudder, heading east, we will meet the new submarines that have arrived, and give these British people a good experience of what real submarine warfare is!"
The fish next to the submarine suddenly seemed to be frightened and made dodging as fast as lightning. The propeller at the tail end of the u-47 submarine became faster, and the advancement speed of the entire submarine also accelerated a lot with this obvious change.
Chapter completed!