Major Heine led the B formation of 10 S-boats to quietly leave the beachhead that had become a Shura field, and made an arc towards the main fleet of the US army in the distance, the main force of the enemy fleet was about 60 kilometers away from Sal Island, and the killing on the beachhead had attracted a large group of pursuers, and they pounced on it in 50-60 minutes, and the B formation needed to change another route, although the distance would be a little farther, but their speed was much faster than that of destroyers and frigates, and the time was almost the same. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Colonel Collins on the beachhead was stunned, he saw his men being slaughtered but could not do anything, he could only urgently call the rear fleet to quickly come with reinforcements, and the rest of the frightened frigates and PT boats near the beachhead began to shoot indiscriminately, because in the dark night there was no distinction between friend and foe, and many times they were either doing useless work or killing each other......

Ingersoll and Turner, who were in command of the main fleet, were alarmed by this sudden turn of events; because of the lesson learned from the surprise attack of the escort aircraft carrier formation, the artillery bombardment fleet rushed to the deep-sea area after dark today, and not only ordered the destroyers and frigates to set up a strict defense and patrol system to strictly defend these S-boats, but even several battleships themselves were maneuvering within a certain range, so as not to stay in place and become targets.

"A bunch of waste, even a few S-boats can't control ......" Admiral Ingersoll, who was awakened, was furious and scolded angrily in the command tower.

Turner was silent, of course he understood what the problem was: the U.S. Navy suffered heavy losses continuously, coupled with the continuous expansion of the escort aircraft carrier force, experienced front-line officers and soldiers tried their best to concentrate on capital ships and escort aircraft carriers, and even destroyers began to let veteran officers from the First World War as captains, and corvettes and PT boats that were theoretically lower than destroyers were more full of recruits, and it may be so-so to let them complete the task step by step, but this kind of night combat, close combat, and sudden combat is too much of a test of experience and reaction level, It's no wonder they're there.

Turner's analysis is still very close to the truth: although the German navy is also rapidly expanding, it still maintains a relatively high combat effectiveness due to relatively small losses over the past few years, and because of the development of its naval thinking, the combat effectiveness of its air, submarine, and fast units is usually stronger than that of conventional surface ships, especially the two units of U-boats and S-boats, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are the first in the world. Many of his men led by Major Heine had participated in the landing campaign planned by Kungunir, and they had participated in such thrilling battles as the unescorted by regular warships, and now this night attack is of course a drizzle.

Colonel Link judged the situation and formulated a plan for a series of attacks based on the resources, equipment, and troops at hand: the first blow was launched by the Night Tiger, and the accurate sniping of only four tanks was used to attract the attention of the beachhead; The second blow was launched by four S-boats, who took the US troops by surprise with a furious assault that was almost close to hand-to-hand combat, and mobilized a large number of US escort warships to rush to Sal Island; Just as the defenses and patrols of the main fleet of the American army were weakened, Major Heine's third blow was imminent.

"Destroyer report boat!" Just as Turner and Ingersoll were staring intently at the direction of the dock, the captain's voice suddenly came over the radio, and then many people heard the roar of the frenzied motors - the source of the irrepressible sound as the boats pulled up to 44 knots.

All the warships did not dare to slack off, and immediately began to fire with fierce 5-inch and 6-inch artillery fire, but because the battle at the pier attracted a number of escort warships, there were inevitably loopholes in the defense level of the US fleet, and the S-boats braved the fierce artillery fire and began to release torpedoes at a distance of 4,000 meters.

A full 30 2.85-ton H9 oxygen torpedoes were launched, rapidly advancing at top speed, and even if they were assaulted at that speed, these torpedoes could run 20,000 meters, and if they were willing to slow it down to 36 knots (the Mk11 torpedoes commonly used by American destroyers generally use a speed of 34 knots), their range exceeded 40,000 meters (the MK11 was less than 10,000 meters).

"A torpedo was found on the starboard side!" There were sailors on the West Virginia who roared out in horror, and the captain immediately instructed the left rudder to 45 degrees, hoping to avoid this group of terrible killers, but only a slow speed of 21 knots how to avoid the 52-knot high-speed torpedo, and the amidship and stern were hit by 2 mines in one go, especially the torpedo in the amidships, which almost directly blew up the old ship, which had been in service for 20 years and had been sunk once in the Pearl Harbor incident. In fact, as a BIG7 Colorado-class battleship alongside the Nagato-class, the West Virginia was not so vulnerable, but the heavy damage suffered in Pearl Harbor broke its backbone, and even after repair, it buried hidden dangers.

I saw that two large gaps were blown open on the starboard side, and the stern part of the ship was blown away completely, and the sea water frantically poured into the hull, and the whole warship fell backwards while leaning to the right, and seeing that the warship was not safe, the sailors jumped into the sea like dumplings -- fortunately, Cape Verde was close to the equatorial region, and if it was the North Atlantic in November, it would hardly be necessary to jump into the sea and soak in the sea for half an hour.

Turner watched in amazement as the West Virginia sank, the second battleship lost by the fleet, and before he could recover from the shock, the staff officer beside him shouted with a crying voice: "Elizabeth, Elizabeth has also been hit by a mine!" ”

The Elizabeth's luck in the first two days finally ran out, or rather, due to the wounds, its evasion speed was not very flexible, and it was very unlucky to eat a torpedo, although it did not sink on the spot, but the situation was very bad, more than 4,000 tons of seawater poured in one go, two-thirds of the boilers stopped running, and the speed of the entire warship dropped to only 5 knots, floating on the surface of the sea like a dead fish.

The worst is the USS Kidd destroyer (Fletcher-class), in order to protect the flagship New Jersey, it stubbornly resisted the next torpedo with its own small body of more than 2,000 tons, and then the whole ship was blown up from the middle and thrown upwards by the shock wave under the gaze of the officers and men of the New Jersey, and then smashed heavily into the water, and even a lot of structural debris flew to the deck of the New Jersey, and more than 300 officers and men finally rescued only 8 survivors.

After completing the torpedo firing, the S boats turned around and ran, and the destroyers and frigates guarding next to them had already been aroused by the loss of their own warships.

Looking at the U.S. warship chasing behind him, Major Heine showed a hideous smile: Come on, come after it, soon you will know that it is powerful, and the fourth blow will be dispatched!

Heine knew that his 10 S-boats were not alone, and in the evening, 5 U-boats had already arrived underwater, and they would also participate in the raid tonight, and the assault of the S-boats would create a better chance for this group of ghost killers.

Hearing the sound of explosions and shells falling into the water on the sea, all the submarine captains smiled with satisfaction. Directly dealing with the heavily guarded enemy fleet is almost looking for death, but when the S-boats succeed in the sneak attack and the scene is chaotic, the opportunity for the submarines to show their skills comes.

"The torpedo is ready."

"Float to periscope height!"

"Left Rudder 10°"

"Two cars into three" (full speed)

"All torpedo fires." With the captain's angry shout, the six torpedo tubes of the XXI submarine numbered U-2517 sprayed out a fan-shaped torpedo at an angle of 20 degrees and headed straight for the US fleet, and the warship he aimed at was the Warrior (Queen Elizabeth class).

"Torpedo!" The British officers and men on board shouted in a hurry, but it was too late, at least 3 torpedoes hit the Warrior, and the huge explosion made every warship tremble, even the S-boats leaving the battlefield could hear it clearly. The torpedo fired by the submarine was a 533mm oxygen torpedo, which, although less powerful than the H9, had a charge of almost 550 kg, which was almost twice as high as the G7 torpedo previously adopted by German submarines, and had a maximum range of more than 48 meters at a rate of fire of 16000 knots.

The worst thing is that the Warrior and the Elizabeth were both bombed and sunk by Italian frogmen in Alexandria once, plus the old age, how can the repaired body withstand the crit of 3 torpedoes? Fortunately, the sinking speed was not fast, saving the fate of many sailors.

The chaotic fleet did not initially think that the submarines were at fault, thinking that it was just the torpedoes released by the remnants of the S-boats, and even consciously dispersed and evaded into the distance, so as not to let the torpedoes, which were said to have a far range, find themselves and let the sea wolves go on a killing spree with impunity.

The killing of the submarines lasted a full 40 minutes, and the most terrifying thing about the XXI torpedo was not only its speed and silence ability, but also its terrifying reloading ability, which could shoot all 18 torpedoes out by hydraulic loading in 20 minutes, and each XXI submarine could carry 23 torpedoes! It wasn't until more than ten minutes later that someone discovered that something was wrong, thinking that there were still submarines in the sea, that the destroyers pounced like headless flies and dropped depth charges, and at this time the submarines had generally fired two or even three salvos.

The night raid finally disappeared completely after a new round of sun rises, and in the face of heavy losses, the American troops were almost crying without tears.

On the army side: the Collins regiment lost 29 tanks and various armored vehicles, including even 4 highly anticipated M6 heavy tanks, together with the Tiger attack and the attack of the S-boats, the whole regiment suffered more than 1,000 casualties, and more than 400 engineers, logisticians and even crews on the beachhead.

The naval losses were much greater: the Elizabeth, the Warrior, and the West Virginia were sunk, the Duke of York had one H9 mine (heavy damage), the Iowa had one G9 mine (medium damage), the Atlanta-class air defense light cruiser sank 3, and the destroyers who fought desperately to block their guns were reimbursed 3.

And their results were pitiful...... (To be continued.) )