Major Linton had the same doubts as Captain Braukamp, and this anxiety, though not visible on his face, was still tormenting his heart, and after trying to calm himself to no avail, he could not resist calling the Maltese side to inquire about the situation. The call back from the base came quickly, telling him that the Italian tanker had left the port "absolutely, certainly", telling him not to be anxious and to wait with peace of mind. Before he could finish a cigarette, a second telegram came, saying that according to the latest intercepted telegram, Guderian was also asking about the tanker, and the Italian called back to tell him that he was sure that he had left the port, and that it was only delayed because of problems with the port transshipment, which could be 48 hours later than scheduled.

"I see." Captain Braukamp, who received the telegram from Colonel Linton, secretly cursed, no wonder there was no trace of the tanker, and the unreliable Italians were habitually late. It didn't matter to him that the enemy was willing to wait two more days, and for a while his mood was much more relaxed, and he was going to go back to the cabin and take a nap first when he thought it was still early--this day and night of constantly staring at the sea made him feel a little unbearable.

Suddenly, Corporal George, who had been leaning on the railing to watch the scenery, turned his head and asked, "Captain, why is there a 'buzzing' sound, is there something wrong with the operation of the submarine equipment?" ”

"No, the engine is working normally." Captain Braukamp listened carefully and did not hear the "buzz" that the other party had said. The conversation between the two attracted everyone's attention, and everyone interrupted the chat and listened carefully, but they all said that they didn't find it. Corporal George himself was a little suspicious, and after listening to it for a while, he didn't hear this voice again, so he thought that he might have heard it wrong, and reluctantly squeezed out a smile: "Maybe I didn't rest well and had hallucinations." ”

Unexpectedly, Captain Braukamp had just turned around, and another junior also raised his hand: "Sir, I heard it too." And with a look of affirmation, he told everyone that he was not an auditory hallucination.

Everyone listened attentively again, some said yes, some said no. Now Captain Braukamp became cautious, examined it carefully, and called through the hatch to inquire about the situation, and the navigator replied, "Everything is normal." ”

At this time, the voice became clearer and clearer, and Braukamp himself heard it, this was by no means the sound of a submarine, and he was wondering where the sound came from, when Corporal George suddenly shouted: "In the air! The sound is in the air, it is the sound of an airplane. ”

"Airplanes?" Captain Braukamp immediately raised the high-powered telescope on the deck and looked in the direction indicated by George, and sure enough, he saw a plane flying from the north, and the altitude was not high. Did they go to bomb Tobruk? But whether the planes taking off from the Malta base or from the Alexandria base should be east-west, why did this one come from the north and why were there so few of them? Due to the height constraints of the telescope, he did not find the escort fighters hidden in the clouds higher up.

However, he could see clearly that these planes were all four-engine, very typical of heavy bombers, and as far as he knew, neither the Germans nor the Italians had four-engine bombers, only the Royal Air Force had this characteristic, so he laughed: "This is probably our air force to bomb the Germans......"

Everyone was relieved by what he said, and some even proposed: "The damn Italians haven't shown up yet, so let's let the planes look for them." “

Captain Braukamp laughed as he insisted on observing the plane to see what kind of model it was, and after looking at it for a long time, he felt that the plane seemed to be quite different from the model of the aircraft he had observed before, not to mention that even a heavy bomber should not fly so low.

"Not good!" He suddenly screamed, "All the personnel immediately return to the cabin, dive urgently, and prepare to ......" Before he finished speaking, he took the lead and rushed towards the hatch mouth like an arrow from the string

The people around were stunned for a while, although their brains couldn't turn, the speed of their body's conditioned reflexes was not slow, and they saw that the captain was the first to run into the hatch, climbing down the ladder with his hands and feet, and the others followed behind, lest they fall behind. Overwhelmed by the captain's shouting order, the navigator subconsciously asked, "Here are the Italians?" ”

"Nope! Far more terrible than the Italians......" The frightened Captain Braukamp gasped as he directed the soldiers to take their positions, "I can see clearly, the German Iron Cross is painted under the wings, it is not an RAF bomber at all, it is the German Fw-200!" I've heard old guys in the Bay of Biscay talk about him, and he's a tough guy to deal with - he's got four engines too, and that's damning! ”

"Hurry!" In the hoarse shouts of Captain Braukamp, the last crew member finally fell into the cabin, and the hatch was closed with a "bang", and the submarine finally began to sink urgently, and the sea water rushed into the tanks on both sides of the submarine, and the huge body of the submarine gradually disappeared above the water.

Captain Braukamp was right, it was the Fw-200C long-range maritime patrol bomber nicknamed "Condor", which was secretly increasing in Crete after Operation "Rolling Stone" was launched, and these "Merchant Killers in the Bay of Biscay" were also transferred to take on patrol and anti-submarine missions in the surrounding waters. When Guderian lured the British with a false telegram, his chain of tactics was already in place, and several planes were sent to reconnoiter the necessary routes and destinations of the tankers in order to find out the ambush force of the British. FW-200 had been searching the waters for a day yesterday during the day, but found nothing due to the strict implementation of the Furious and Voyager's hidden orders. Early this morning, on the island of Crete, the radio listening team intercepted the telegraph signal from the southern sea, and although it could not decipher its contents, there was no doubt that it must have been a trace of the British, but it was not known whether it was a warship or a submarine, and it was precisely when Major Linton communicated with the base about the ambush.

Captain Braukamp only knew that the vulture was coming at him, not that there was another vulture patrolling further away, and that Major Linton's Fury had been spotted before him.

The condor had swept back and forth in this sea area, lowering the altitude to a height of only more than 100 meters above sea level, and the Mediterranean Sea, which was calm and inaccessible at present, was now extremely easy to survey. ”

The captain took a closer look through the binoculars, and although the ripples had gradually dissipated, he was still sure that a large item had fallen nearby. There was nothing wrong with the sea, but the sunlight was very visible, and soon the figure of the Voyager was betrayed - the captain saw the swarthy thing under the water slowly sinking, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "That's a submarine." ”

"Ours?"

"Nope! English. “

"Why are you so sure?"

"First, the base did not explain that there were our submarines nearby; Second ,......" the captain laughed, "if it's our submarine, why is he hiding so fast?" Only enemy submarines will dive quickly with a weak heart......"

"Hahaha! Great, I've finally found this guy, I thought it would be in vain again today like yesterday......"

"Depth charge preparation." The captain's command was calm, "Set the depth to 30 meters, no, 35 meters." ”

It didn't take long for the bombardier to reply: "The hedgehog is ready." ”

"Ready, put!" A hedgehog bullet was immediately pushed down, and a huge column of water burst out of the sea in a few moments.

The average depth of the Mediterranean Sea was only 50-60 meters, and the Furious and Voyager had chosen to ambush the tankers in the open sea not far from the harbor, where the average depth was only 45-50 meters.

"Go on, let's go." Depth charges on the Condor continue to be dropped.

"Captain! Depth charges! The sound of the bomb entering the water was unusually clear in the sonar, and the submarine listener suddenly shouted in horror, "It's coming at us." ”

"Prepare for the impact, and the plugging team is ready to plug the leak." Captain Braukamp had no time to think about it, but he could only give the targeted order with all his might, and he only felt his teeth rattle and prayed vigorously that the enemy's bombs would not be dropped too accurately.

"Boom!" With a bang, the bomb exploded not far away, and the hull shook violently, but it seemed unscathed. The first few hedgehog bombs made the submarine have a thrilling escape, but the explosion around the sea water was chaotic, the Voyager was shocked to sway left and right, and when the sixth hedgehog bomb exploded, the huge pressure shook all the lights in the cabin to extinguish, a large number of pipes could not withstand the pressure and began to spray water columns, and the leak plugging team members hurriedly stepped forward to maintain.

"The depth has been adjusted to 45 meters." Although the captain could no longer see the dark shadow underwater, his intuition told him that the enemy was still underwater, "Keep dropping, he won't be able to escape!" ”

By the time the 7th depth charge fell, the Voyager's good fortune finally came to an end, the depth charge exploded almost at the bow of the boat, and the huge pressure generated in an instant formed a terrifying water pressure through the conduction of water, and the overwhelmed submarine pressure shell made a "crunch" tooth-sore metal tearing sound, and finally could not support it to shatter, and the sea water suddenly poured into the cabin, and the submarine of the Royal Navy could never float.

After all the water columns had subsided, the captain carefully observed the movement of the sea, and found that a large area of oil and personal belongings of the crew was slowly flooding up, "Good job, guys, we sank a British submarine." Cheers resounded in the cabin!

While he was talking, the navigator received a call from another plane: "Condor 1, Condor 1, I'm 2, I'm 2, we just sank a submarine, judging by the floating wreckage, it's British." ”

On the morning of 7 September, two submarines of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet sank in the waters off Port Tobruk, killing all 113 people below Major Linton, none of whom survived.